SPIRITUAL WARFARE

Ephesians • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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Paul concludes his address to the Ephesians and to Christians in general with a “Finally” statement. He has talked at length (32 weeks) about the nature of the church and how we, being the church, should live. Since the church is a relational entity, we are given a whole lot of instruction on relationships. After all this, Paul gets to the final conclusion of the matter. Finally: two wrap it up, to conclude. All of the theology and all of the practical instruction that has preceded this moment is part of, or embedded in this last thought. We want to pay careful attention to this last thought. It will take us a few weeks to digest it.

Ephesians 6:10–13 NKJV

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

WARFARE

Martial Language

The Bible is a book of war, and so is the God of the Bible.

Exodus 15:3 NKJV

The Lord is a man of war; The Lord is His name.

You simply cannot read the Bible without seeing that at the center of existence is conflict. You may no like it. You may not want to have anything to do with it, but that doesn’t change it.

Genesis 3:15 NLT

And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Matthew 11:12 NKJV

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.

Whatever else it may mean, it tells us the nature of the spiritual realm is violent and violence is to be expected.

Wrestling

Paul seems to mix his metaphors, going from warfare to wrestling, but I think it is actually an intensification of the idea. There is war, and then there is hand to hand combat. There were archers, and slings, and catapults, and then there was the actual life and death wrestling of foes on the battlefield!

I’d rather fly a plane and drop bombs on the battlefield than actually go bayonet to bayonet. That is the real blood and guts battle, and that is the kind of battle we are engaged in. The brute struggle of wrestling.

If you think that something is wrong because you are engaged in a battle, let me put your mind at ease, though I don’t think it will put your mind at ease. As long as you’re a Christian you will be involved in spiritual war.

J.C. Ryle wrote over 100 years ago:

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive Spiritual Warfare—Part 1

“Let us consider these propositions.… The saddest symptom about many so-called Christians is the utter absence of anything like conflict or fight. They eat, they drink, they dress, they work, they amuse themselves, they get money, they spend money, they go through a scanty round of formal religious services once or even twice a week, but the great spiritual warfare … its watchings and strugglings, its agonies and anxieties, its battles and contests … of all this they appear to know nothing at all.”

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive Spiritual Warfare—Part 1

“Do you find in your heart of hearts a spiritual struggle? Are you conscious of two principles within you, contending for the mastery? Do you feel anything of war in your inward man? Well, let us thank God for it! It is a good sign. It is strongly probable evidence of the great work of sanctification. All true saints are soldiers. A real Christian can be known as much by his inward warfare as by his inward peace.”

The Enemy

And Paul makes it clear that we are battling against real spiritual creatures.

Perhaps one of the greatest lies the devil ever ran on men is that he doesn’t exist. We think that we are modern thinkers who know there are no such things as demons and devils.

People seem happy to believe in a god, usually one of their own making, but not a devil. If you can believe in supernatural good, why is it so hard to believe in supernatural evil?

Luke 10:18 NKJV

And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

If Jesus claims to be an eye-witness to the casting out of Satan, why then do you doubt Him? Why would He lie about the enemy if the enemy wasn’t real?

And so Paul gives us insight into our battle with evil. He points beyond the material realm into the spiritual. Living in the material world, it is easy for us to look upon that which is seen. Someone might say the source of evil is poverty, or lack of education. Someone might say the source of evil is politics and ideology. Someone might say the source of evil is a psychological problem. And all of these may contribute to the evil, but none of these explanations get at the root of the matter.

The problem is spiritual. The problem is principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and spirits of wickedness.

Archas, exousias, kosmokratoras…these are all mighty creatures…high up in the demonic hierarchies. We are not fighting with weak, foolish backwater rubes. We are fighting with rulers, authorities, dominant beasts.

2 Corinthians 4:4 NKJV

whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

The Bible declares the devil to be the God of aionos = the ages, this world! The highest ranking spiritual authority in this world referred to as a lower case god.

I understand that not every flat tire or extra pound gained is the devil. But we would be foolish to dismiss the reality of the kingdom of darkness that is set on our destruction.

THE FIGHT IS GOD’S

In the Lord

Now Paul says something here that is essential to the nature of what we find ourselves involved in. He tells us to be strong IN THE LORD.

Be strong is passive, meaning the strengthening is being done to us.

Psalm 18:32–40 NKJV

It is God who arms me with strength, And makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of deer, And sets me on my high places. He teaches my hands to make war, So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have also given me the shield of Your salvation; Your right hand has held me up, Your gentleness has made me great. You enlarged my path under me, So my feet did not slip. I have pursued my enemies and overtaken them; Neither did I turn back again till they were destroyed. I have wounded them, So that they could not rise; They have fallen under my feet. For You have armed me with strength for the battle; You have subdued under me those who rose up against me. You have also given me the necks of my enemies, So that I destroyed those who hated me.

The power of His Might

And be empowered in the Might of His strength…not ours!

The Armor of God

We are to put on the armor of God, not our own armor, not something of our manufacture.

We are going to be looking at these pieces of armor over the next few weeks so we won’t approach them just yet. You’ll have to come back to learn how to fight in a spiritual war on a battlefield you cannot see. But for the moment we simply need to understand that the Fight is God’s. It is His power, His strength, His weaponry that will win the day.

And that is profoundly reassuring. We are no match in our own abilities for all that the devil is doing. But we are strengthened in THE LORD and in the power of HIS might. If God is for us, who can be against us?

THE BATTLE IS OURS

We Wrestle

The fight is God’s…but the battle is ours!! We have to wrestle.

Take Up the Armor

We have to take up the armor!

Having Done All

We have to do all to stand!!

And so, very clearly, there is no suggestion that we play no role in this. We just sit back and count bodies. The strength and empowering are from God, but that then must be applied. The strength is God’s…He gives it to us. We don’t get it by our religious calisthenics…it isn’t spiritual weight lifting. We receive power from God, but we wrestle!

The armor is God’s. It is of His manufacture, and that will become more and more clear as we work through the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation...but we take it up! We put it on. We wield the sword and lift the shield. We run on the city! We press the battle to the gates. We pray. We witness! We link our lives together. All of these are part of the armor.

If we do not engage in the battle, then we will be defeated. You cannot ignore the battle. If you sleep through it, you will die by it. You cannot ignore it.

You may think that you will survive a little backsliding, a little self indulgence…just slacken the bow strings, let your guard down. But this is not a game. This is a war. And I have seen too many casualties, souls lost, folks die…to simply pretend that it doesn’t matter.

Paul is calling you to a militant Christianity. Will you respond?