Be Ready and Armed to Stand Firm

Transcript

GR2336
12/19/2021
Be Ready and Armed to Stand Firm
Ephesians 6:13-24
Gil Rugh

We’re going to Ephesians 6 in your bibles, so if you’d like to turn there, Ephesians 6 and we’re going to conclude our study of the book of Ephesians this morning. We’re going to look at the closing verses, verses 10-24 of Ephesians 6.

You have the heart of the letter, basically in verses 10-20, then in verses 21-24, you have his closing remarks, which are briefer than in some of his other letters. We’ve noted as we’ve looked at the first three verses of this sixth chapter. Beginning with verse 10, we’ve concentrated on verse 10, 11 and 12, verse 13 will fit there with those three verses as we’ll make note of in a moment. We noted there are five imperatives in verses 10-17, which cover through verse 20. Because verses 18, 19 and 20 build on that fifth imperative.

The first imperative is in verse 10, “be strong.” The second is in verse 11, put on, “put on the full armor of God.” The third is that verb in verse 13, “take up.” The fourth is in verse 14, “stand firm.” And verse 17, similar in idea to verse 13, “take up,” but it’s a different verb. Those five are the imperatives, the commands. They wrap up this Epistle, there are no commands given in verses 18-24. Verses 18, 19 and 20 as we noted, build out of that imperative “to take” in verse 17. And the verses 21-24 are his closing remarks, which are rather brief.

We noted that the Epistle breaks down into two basic divisions. The first three chapters cover the position we have in Christ. And then the last three chapters, chapters 4, 5 and 6, cover the practice, what we are to do in light of that position. That will come out clearly in verses 10-20, as we wrap up the heart of this letter. That there are certain things that we are to do. And that has to do with our practice, but it’s based on our position. If you don’t have the position in Christ, then the practice is just you doing good works to try to make yourself appeal to God, but you don’t. The Judaizers being an example of that. They had the Old Testament scriptures, they had knowledge in the scriptures, they pride themselves as being Jews, as the only nation chosen of God for Himself. And yet, they did not have the faith that brought them into a personal relationship with God. And so, their practice was just the form without any reality connected to it.

In verses 10-20 of chapter 6, we’re looking at the first four verses. We focused on the first three verses where we’re commanded in verse 10 to “be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might.” And that involves us doing something. That’s not just sitting back and saying, well I’m strong in the Lord, I’ll just let Him do everything. Because the second command is verse 11, “Put on the full armor of God.” So, that’s something we are responsible to do. And that is a constant reminder, that we are to be putting on the full armor of God. There’s a firmness to what is said. But it is something that we have to constantly be reminded of, to “put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes,” the methodology, the outworkings of the Devil. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies.” He describes them in a variety of ways.

This is a serious conflict we are in. Before we were children of the Devil, we were doing his will all the time. Now we have been called out to belong to the living God. That doesn’t mean now we are retired from the conflict. Now the conflict has intensified. God has, by His grace drawn us to Himself. That was dealt with in chapter one of this letter. And further developed in chapters 2 and 3. Now, we are to “put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the Devil,” verse 11. Verse 13, says basically the same thing as verse 11. Therefore, take up, put on. ‘Take up’ saying the same thing. You take it up to put it on, “the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day.” You need the armor particularly in the days of satanic attack. And he withdraws, he attacks, he withdraws, he attacks. And sometimes as the attacks seem to be diminished in intensity, we can take it easy, relax. We understand he never changes. His opposition is the same, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. He is the enemy of every believer.

And the forces of verse 12, not flesh and blood. We get, and we see this happen as Christianity deteriorates, we become focused on just the external, physical, flesh and blood. We say, well if we could just get this changed, if we could get this person in place of this person, or these people in place of these people. But we understand, it is a spiritual battle going on “against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies,” the end of verse 12. So, we must take up the full armor of God so that we’ll be able to resist. And it’s the same basic word translated ‘stand firm’ in verse 11. It says put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm.” Then in verse 13, “take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able,” and it’s the same basic word, with the preposition on the front, ‘to be against’. So, it’s translated ‘resist’. But it’s stand against the evil day and the forces that come in a special way. “And having done everything, to stand firm.” There’s our word again, so we have it in verse 11, translated ‘stand firm’, we have it in verse 13, as ‘be able to resist’, stand against. Then we have it in verse 14, “stand firm,” we had at the end of verse 13, “stand firm.” Now, it’s in the form of a command in the beginning of verse 14, “stand firm.” That’s the key, we have to be immovable. We have to stand our ground, hold our ground. This is not primarily dealing with things that will enable us to be aggressive. We have a lot of this that appeals in a certain way to Christianity. Well, we are on the offence, we are taking ground, we are. . . The key in verses 10-20 is just hold your ground. Stand firm, it’s primarily not offensive, but if you will, defensive. Holding the ground that God has given. We don’t give in, so to speak.

So, the end of verse 13 was “having done everything, to stand firm.” So, verse 14, begins with the fourth command, “stand firm.” That’s it. It doesn’t say be on the initiative, take additional ground. There are times when it seems the Lord is pleased and we do what? We do the thing we do, and God is pleased to use His word to do things in people’s lives in greater ways. But we haven’t changed what we do. And we need to be careful of that as we have talked about in verses 10, 11 and 12. We need to stay the course. God decides He will do this, He will do this. He will do this, He will do this. We noted in the late 1800’s in England, we’ve talked about this in our previous study, there were churches of thousands in attendance. Spurgeon’s church had five thousand. Today, it has 250 to 300, and it’s a mega-church in England. We say, what happened? Well, I guess God has withdrawn His saving grace. So, that less than 5% of the people in England attend church of any kind. But we are to stand firm. We are to give forth the word, and that will come out as we move along.

So, he picks up in verse 14, “Stand firm, therefore.” Remember, we are doing our battle now, not against flesh and blood, verse 12. Not against other human beings. We get taken up with, well, if we only got a different person in this position or different people in these positions. God ultimately determines the outcome. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with the girdle of truth. The belt of truth, we’ll use it simply. You can, in your own study, look at some of the expansion of how maybe in detail they do this. But we’re basically talking about the belt that goes around the middle, that holds everything. That it would bind up those long flowing robes, when you were ready to do battle. When you would hook your sword onto that belt that went around the middle. So, it’s that, “having girded your loins with truth.” And he’s not talking about the objective truth, he’s talking about putting into practice the truth. Cause you note, here’s something we do.

We saw something of the position we have in the first three chapters, and particularly chapter one. If you want to just turn back there for a moment. He’s writing to the saints and they are the ones in verse 3 who have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world. He predestined us to adoption and so on. All down through there, but not we are responsible. It’s not just, let go and let God. It is to realize God has enabled us, and empowered us, so now we are to do what He says. Stand firm, and that involves then having been girded with truth around our waist, around our loins. It’s truthfulness, sometimes translated ‘sincerity’. It’s a genuineness that is to characterize us. Because the first three chapters of this letter, we are in a position of truth. The truth of God, and it will come down to that in verse 17, when he talks about the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. Now, word of God and the truth that God has revealed is the environment in which we live now as believers. So, around our middle, we are to be girded and belted with the truthfulness of God, because we live in light of His truth. His truth characterizes us in all that we do.

Ephesians 4:15, he says we are “speaking the truth in love.” And thus “we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head,” is Christ. Speaking the truth, so it’s not just the objective truth there, but it’s the implementation and the acting with the truth. So, truthfulness, perhaps is a good way to express it, girded about our loins.

Come over to 2 Corinthians, just a little bit before Ephesians, you have the book of Galatians. Then you have Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, going toward the front of your bible. 2 Corinthians 4:1, “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart.” So, you see the implementation that Paul says about himself. I don’t lose heart. I’ve received a ministry. “We have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking,” and there’s our word ‘walking’ that we have noted in Ephesians, particularly in chapters 4 and 5. That emphasis on the walk, the daily procedure that we have. “Not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth.” So, it’s not just the objective truth, but the living out of that truth. The truthfulness that characterizes our lives, “commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” And then he goes on, “if our gospel is veiled, it’s veiled to those who are perishing.” The god of this world has worked to blind the minds of people, so that they don’t respond to the gospel.

Come back to John 8, so Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the 8th chapter. Jesus talks about the spiritual leaders of His day in this chapter. But it’s the truth that sets us free. And then we are to live in light of that truth. In verse 44 of John 8, Jesus addresses the spiritual leaders of His day. And He says, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.” You see there truthfulness is the standard. Not just the objective truth but the subjective truth of it being incorporated into our lives and lived out. Spoken, truthing in love, as Ephesians 4:15 puts it, translated, “speaking the truth.” We’re truthing in love, literal translation of Ephesians 4:15. The same thing here, it’s either a lie or it’s of the truth. And the truth is to characterize us. Jesus says it’s a matter of truth, it’s the living out of the truth, the response to the truth, the truthfulness. You are of your father the Devil, so you always do lies, that’s the line. Positionally, we are in the truth, we believe the truth. But now, in practicality if we have, we live out the truth. Now, the Devil is constantly working so we have to be careful, so that we are girded with that belt of truth around us in all that we do.

Come back to Ephesians 6, standing firm, not moving forward, just holding our ground, being firm. Having girded our loins around with that belt, that middle with truth, or truthfulness. “Having put on the breastplate of righteousness.” Again, it’s not the personal righteousness but the outworking of the personal righteousness we have in Christ. We have positional righteous, we are righteous in Him. But now, if we are righteous in Him, that righteousness ought to manifest itself in the way we live and what we do, how we conduct ourselves. That’s the constant battle. And the Devil is smart. He adjusts. Well, these people, well, we won’t make it a direct frontal attack on the truth, we’ll sort of wade the truth in with the error. The breastplate of righteousness.

This all comes back… just come back to Isaiah 59, we’ll come back here once, because Paul does draw on some of his analogy of this armor that we are to wear from the gospel of Isaiah, the truth of Isaiah. But we’ll just come back and look at this one passage. You can trace your cross references back at your leisure. Verse 17, now the Lord is endowed with this armament. We are taking our armament in effect from the Lord. Verse 17, “He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head.” We’ll talk about that helmet of salvation when we get to verse 17 of chapter 6. But here, “He put on righteousness like a breastplate.” That same idea you’ll see in the cross references as you come back to Ephesians 6, references to Isaiah. Paul has built, this is gospel truth. This is truth from the word of God.

Come back to the book of Romans 6:13, and you’ll see the position and the practice, the position and the practice. So, in Romans 6:12, “do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you should obey it’s lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members,” the parts of your body, “as instruments of righteousness to God.” So, there you see, our practice is to be a manifestation of the position we have. We have been made righteous in Christ, so righteousness should characterize us now as a believer. So, we have the breastplate of righteousness that protects us. The Devil wants to get beyond this armor. He wants us to be deficient in the fullness of the armor. But the breastplate protected us from those fatal attacks. Those more damaging attacks. Because it covered the heart, the lungs, so it’s like the breastplate of righteousness in our conduct, in our behavior. Verse 15, if you’re still in Romans 6, shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!” And who you present yourself to as slaves, you’re slaves of that. So, if you claim to be a slave of God, live out your life as a righteous person, doing righteous deeds.

1 Peter, go the other way in your bible, all the way, almost to the back. Its easiest if you go to the book of Revelation, the end of your New Testament, and then go forward a little bit. Because they are smaller books there, and you’ll come to 1 Peter2. 1 Peter 2:11, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles.” They may slander you because you’re doing right, but God may use it and ultimately in the day of judgement, you will be revealed for what you are. So, we’re important in the armor bit, it’s simple but the truth is foundational to our lives as believers. You live what you are. You can be a member of a church and try to live like other people in the church, but the reality of it is, is it coming from the heart or not? This just trying to conform on the outside so that I’ll fit enough to be accepted, Paul’s warning about that. And as true believers, we must put on the full armor of God, or we won’t be able to stand. And then you do have this confusion. Am I dealing with a believer? Am I dealing with an unbeliever? Am I a believer or am I an unbeliever? And then the Devil inserts himself, and we can’t tell for sure what we’re dealing with. But we can deal with the conduct.

Come back to Ephesians 6, you put on the full armor and that includes the belt that will be truthfulness. That includes the breastplate that will be righteousness. You practice what you preach, I am righteous in Christ, and righteousness characterizes me and my life. We could look at a variety of passages, but we won’t take the time to do that. But righteousness is to be characteristic of your life. And I have to be careful because we come up with excuses. Well, I know, but nobody’s perfect. Well, if you know, and you’re not doing it, you need to make the adjustment. And you begin to make excuses, then you raise the question, am I really righteous? Have I been made righteous in Christ? I’m not concerned about practicing righteousness, or is the Devil just trying to get me to lower the armor so he can put in more fatal kind of attacks? I want to be careful, this is what the instructions are. You take up the full armor of God, so that you may stand firm against the Devil in the evil day, verse 13, “and having done everything to stand firm.” When the attacks of the Devil have come, and all the forces of the Devil, verse 12, I’m standing here. The dust settles, the battle, there are casualties, but I am standing firm.

Verse 15, “having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” The gospel of peace. And again, he’s talking about being planted firmly. Where the battle… the Roman soldiers would use sandals with spikes on the bottom, so that their feet could be planted. So, they weren’t slipping all over the place. You know, you need to stand, you’re going to have to use your weapons. You’re going to be fighting, you don’t want to be slipping, falling, that kind of thing. So, here, “having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” The foundation for this is, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” Romans 5:1. That’s foundational, but it’s to be outworking in our lives as well. Am I experiencing the peace of God? Well, I have peace but, boy I’m unsettled all the time. Well, wait a minute, I have to have my feet planted. The Devil constantly is battling. We don’t want to forget, verse 12, “our struggle is not against flesh and blood,” so it’s against supernatural forces. Now, you can’t stand against supernatural forces with just natural endowments. You need the armor that God has provided. So, I have my feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. That readiness with the gospel of peace.

Come over to Philippians, just after Ephesians, Philippians 4:6, “Be anxious for nothing.” Wait a minute, does that characterize me? “Be anxious for nothing.” Wow, you don’t know, my job is this, my family is this, my this and my that. I got a lot of things to have anxiety over. “Be anxious for nothing.” That doesn’t mean I’m careless. I mean, I have to be putting on the armor, that’s the key. Do I have the armor on? All the armor, the full armor of God, put it on. Otherwise the Devil, he knows and he attacks where I’m most vulnerable. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Now note this, “and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension,” everything you can think, it surpasses that. “Will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is anything of excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

So, you see the pieces of armor, the truthfulness, well, that would fit with verse 8, helps me to have the peace of God that enables me not to be slipping and sliding all over the place when the Devil attacks. He will attack. Part of what happens, is he lowers the intensity of the attack, so that we become more comfortable. This is where the church is I fear, in our own country today. Well, you know, we can work together and if we get the right Supreme Court, and if we get the right representatives, and if we get the right what? The Devil hasn’t changed. We’re saying, if we get the people of the Devil, who agree with us more, we’ll be in a better position. Well, sometimes the Devil, he lowers the attack. And we get a little softer because we’re not used to being attacked. And then when we do get attacked, we get uncomfortable. Something must be wrong. But verse 7 says, the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard,” will stand guard, “your hearts and your minds.” That’s what I need. I need to know for sure I am doing what God would have me do. I am being faithful to His word.

I’ve been in the ministry for a number of years. I’ve seen again and again, it’s a relentless attack of the Devil. I have to have my feet shod with the gospel of peace. The peace that He brings. The peace that surpasses all understanding. Verse 7 of Philippians 4, “the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension.” That’s the implementation, I have peace with God through Christ Jesus and my faith in Him. I should be experiencing the peace of God in my life. Now I’m not, and day after day I go though all this, I have to begin, first I need to get back and deal with why do I think I have peace with God? Oh, I know I trusted Christ. When I was in 4th grade, I prayed and I know and. . . maybe yes, maybe no. Why don’t you have peace? I don’t know, I know I’ve trusted Christ. Well then, have you put on the shoes for the armor? You’ve opened the door for the Devil. You think, well my feet, I just decided it would feel good to be in my bare feet. Well, then you don’t have your feet shod with the gospel of peace. Now the Devil attacks cause, well, I wasn’t expecting it. No, of course not. Why? Cause he pulled back. Ease off, don’t make this an issue. And then when it becomes an issue, I’m not prepared for it, and low and behold, I find myself, all of sudden the peace is gone.

The Devil, he can use the scripture (if we have time we’ll look at Matthew 4) the Devil can use the scripture. And pretty soon now, I’m justifying my lack of peace because of this or that or the other thing. And now, I’m really, now I’m getting off track, I’m beginning to loosen the armor that was the breastplate. And, I don’t know… Well, when the battle is intense, you don’t need someone taking off parts of the armor, or sitting down crying because they don’t know what to do. There’s a reason the bible tells us…

So come back to Ephesians 6. You have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. You can jot down Isaiah 52:7, that would be a passage that would relate to this. It’s our firm footing that helps keep me stable. You note, your feet are planted, you’re not driven back. You’re not slipping, sliding, you have the right shoes on in the analogy. But these are all pictures, the preparation of the gospel of peace. Verse 16, “in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith.” So, now I’ve got the basic armament that I need. I need to take up the shield of faith, “with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” The Devil is relentless, he is constantly shooting. And the shield here was what we call a door shield. It was like two and a half feet wide and four feet high. It wasn’t the little plate kind of shield you see on the arm. This was what we called the door shield. It was like two and a half feet by four feet. So, you could get down behind it and protect yourself. And sometimes they would dip it in water because the enemy would shoot flaming darts that would stick in the front and try to catch the shield on fire. Because it had to be light enough to carry and yet heavy enough to deflect the flaming darts of the evil one, the Devil constantly shooting at me. And I have to have my faith firmly planted in Him.

Again, this is not just saving faith, but it’s the outworking of saving faith, in my trusting Him in every situation, every time. I don’t have control of everything. But I have faith in the God who does. That includes my family. That includes my kids, my grandkids, my great-grandkids. That includes the people of the church. I have to have the shield of faith. Lord, I believe Your word. I believe what You have said. My faith is in You. The enemy, he doesn’t quit. So, then the flaming arrows come, I put down the shield, I’m tired of being behind this shield. All of a sudden then, I’m hit with the flaming arrows, then what? I have doubts that come. Then I have, well, the Devil will give me reasons for my doubts, now I have reasons for my doubts. And I moved off of scripture. Pretty soon I’m a mess. Maybe it’s my shoes, maybe it’s my belt, maybe it’s . . .

I have to have my faith in God and His truth. And every situation I have to ask, Lord, what does Your word say? What is my proper response here? I don’t know. Well, then I need to examine the Word. I maybe need to talk to a believer who is more mature than I. We look to people who agree with us. You don’t extinguish the flaming darts of the Devil. See, what he wants, the flaming darts, they are coming all the time. One gets through, ow! Well now, there’s a point, he’s got a foothold. There’s a doubt. Now I talk to someone else, and he’s gotten hit by three darts, so he’s as bad, and pretty soon, I’m in trouble again. You note, there’s an individual responsibility here as well as a corporate responsibility. We individually have to put on this armor, that’s individual. But then as God’s army, put together in this place, we must be armored accordingly. Well, I don’t agree. Oh, so I’m out of here. Oh, well, maybe the Lord’s leading you to another bible-believing church. Or maybe the Devil is shooting you with his arrows, flaming arrows. And when they get there, they hurt. And you think, well, what do I have to do? Well, it must be someone else has done something. Well, you must take “the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”

I don’t let down my guard. I’m going to believe what God said. I’m going to believe what God said. I’m going to apply what God said to my situation. I’m going to have mature believers help me to apply it at times. It’s the shield of faith, my faith in God. And what He has said holds true. Doesn’t mean I’ll agree with everything, but I want to be careful, I want to have the shield of faith, which will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And he just keeps them coming. And he knows where we might be vulnerable. Where we’ve put down the shield and he says, now fire. I could give examples of 50 some years in the ministry, at this church and the church I pastored before I came to this church, over 50 years ago. It’s the same thing. You say, well, this is what the word says, yes, but it doesn’t apply to me, and this, but, but…We have to come back, what does the Word say? And you extinguish the flames and you take the losses.

So, verse 17, you have the final command. So, you stand firm in verse 14, and you put on the various pieces of armor. Then you have the command again, the 5th and last command here, “take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Now, we saw in verse 14, stand firm, having your loins girded with truth. We noted that’s truth, truthfulness, the outworking of it. Because in verse 17, we “take the helmet of the salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.” So, the objective truth of God’s word, in verse 14, the truthfulness, I’m characterized by truthfulness. Whether in this church, or if the Lord leads you some place else to another church, you have to be characterized by truthfulness. The implementation of the truth. But in verse 17, you ‘take’, then it would be the way they would dress. They would get all their stuff on, then put the helmet on. And then they pick up their sword. So, it sort of pulls it all together. You take the helmet of salvation, that settled assurance I have in my salvation. It is in Christ and Him alone.

I’m not going to agree with everything, with everybody. But I have to agree with God. And there are things that you might think, well, it would be better if we had a 9 o’clock service then a 10 o’clock service. But you adjust. But certain things I can’t change. The word of God is unchanging. I take the helmet of salvation. The protection against the cowardly fear. I am a child of God. I have that settled. I am His and His forever. 1 Thessalonians, if you want to turn back there, its just a little bit further back in your bibles, not far. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 8, for the point. “Since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as the helmet, the hope of (our) salvation,” he focuses particularly on the anticipation of our salvation. Where Ephesians just puts it as the helmet of our salvation, all of it’s included in my salvation. But here in 1 Thessalonians 5, with the intensity of the battle, I know the outcome. My salvation, now I am secure and I am secure for the future. And you have the breastplate there in verse 8, as well as of faith and love. As he just puts it and reminds us, we need to be armored. He uses the armor in Ephesians. He was chained to a Roman soldier so, that would obviously be a clear picture for him. The helmet of salvation.

You want to turn to just past Thessalonians to Timothy. 1 Timothy 6:12, fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilot, that you keep the commandment without stain.” Fight the good fight. Take hold of eternal life. I have the helmet of salvation and all that that entails. I am protected. Keep going back to 1 Peter, that’s just after Hebrews and James. And you’re toward the back, you can go to Revelation and come forward a little bit to 1 Peter 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again, to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith, for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith,” what demonstrates that it’s genuine, “being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” And he goes on, you haven’t seen Christ, but it’s true. You love Him, but you haven’t seen Him yet, but all of His promises… So, I’m putting on the helmet of salvation, and all that that includes. It’s there to protect the most vulnerable spot of all, my head. Have that helmet of salvation.

One more passage on that, 2 Corinthians 4, we’re going the other way in your bible. 2 Corinthians 4:17, verse 16 for the thought, “Therefore we do not loose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.” That’s the key. “For momentary, light affliction,” and Paul had some serious afflictions, ultimately would give his life. “Momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal. The things which are not seen are eternal.” Go back four or five hundred years, go back to the Reformation, Martin Luther, those men, they battled, yes. But you know, everything has changed in the world. But nothing has changed, because you’ve focused on what really mattered, and that’s where we are. I labor, I toil, I apply myself, I work, I’m diligent, I. . . But you know, I have to be dressed in the armor of God. Otherwise, I’ll get distracted. When I get distracted, then I will not be clothed fully in the armor. When I’m not clothed in the armor, then I become vulnerable. Then I become a complainer, then I become this or that and the other thing.

Come back to Ephesians 6, we “take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.” That’s it. The sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. You know, most of this armament is defensive. The emphasis repeatedly mentioned as we put on His armor is to stand firm. Stand firm. Stand firm. We’re all caught up and well, we can move forward, we can attack, we could do this, we can do that. God says, stand firm. Now, sometimes in our standing firm… Paul, he carried the gospel to different places, people were saved. The Ephesians were an example of that. He spent some time there out of his earthly ministry. We read that in the book of Acts. What’s he tell them? Stand firm. Well, you’ve got to be taking more ground. You ought to be doing more. Stand firm, be faithful. The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Now, verse 14 said we had our loins girded with truth. Now we just are taking up the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. This is only part of the armament, they would not only be defensive, they could be offensive. The sword of the Spirit which is the word of God, that’s what I hold onto.

Come back to Matthew 4, I mentioned we would come to this if we had time. Matthew 4, Christ being tempted by the Devil. And you see that the Devil can use the word of God. We want to be careful. We can use the word of God. And sometimes we allow the Devil to come into our mind and we use the word of God improperly. Then we become instruments of the Devil, and we’ve made ourselves vulnerable to the attacks of the Devil. In Matthew 4:1, “Then Jesus was lead by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” He fasted for forty days and forty nights. Then He became hungry, then the Devil comes. And so in our weakness, when he thinks we’re most vulnerable, he comes. And he said, well, you know, the word of God, he said if You’re the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread, prove it. What did Jesus say? He said, well yeah, I’ll make those stones bread. No, He doesn’t, because that would be yielding to the Devil. He says, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’ ” You see, the Devil he’s going to use scripture. Ok, he took Him up to the pinnacle of the temple and says, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down, for it is written.” Wait, just because we quote a verse of scripture, we’re home. Maybe not. Cause what’s the Devil do? He quotes scripture. Ok, want to quote scripture? “ ‘He will command His angels concerning You;’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that You will not strike Your foot.’ ” So, there you are. As the scriptures say, cast yourself off the temple if You’re the Son of God. Jesus said, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” Well, you have to understand scripture with scripture. Not enough just to throw a verse out.

Then the Devil took Him to a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world. He says, alright, lets get done with it. We’re done with the scripture bit. Let’s get down to it, I’ll give You everything. All these things I’ll give to You. Verse 9, he showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, I’ll give them all to You. You could rule over it all, if You fall down and worship me. Jesus comes back with scripture, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.” The Devil left Him. But the Devil is not done. That’s the beginning of Christ’s ministry. Three years later, he’ll move the Jews, and the Gentiles, the Roman leaders alike, to crucify Him. But he still doesn’t win. But you see the attacks, we have to be prepared. We have to be ready. So, when he says that you take this sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, you have to know the Word. And you have to know it beyond just, yeah there’s a verse of scripture, yeah, you know how it goes. But because the Devil knows it. What a great scripture, verse 6 of Matthew 4, if you’re still there, “command His angels concerning You… they will bear you up, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.” Well, yeah, I guess I’ll jump off the temple. No, Jesus says you have to put into context of scripture broadly, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” Oh, well, the Devil had no answer to that, let’s just cut this down. What I’m really looking for is for You to worship me.

So, we want to be careful. I’ve had endless conversations of people, a portion of scripture, and they’re just convinced. When you bring up the other scripture, well, I don’t think that matters to me. What do you mean? Is the scripture the authority or is it not?

Come back to Ephesians 6, we’ll wrap this up. We want to summarize it now, “With all prayer and petition.” Now, we have it as a new sentence, but in the Greek, it’s not a new sentence. And it really comes on when you take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. And that puts the materials, the armaments that you’re to put on, all together. Now, with taking the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, you take prayer and petition, and you “pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, (you) be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.” We pray for one another. We’re looking out for one another. We’re aware that, yes, you’re going through certain trials, certain things, I want to pray for you. We are with all prayer and petition, praying at all times in the Spirit. Not just in times of problems, just I know you’re going through a difficulty and I’m praying for you. I know you’re going through a difficulty, is there anything you want me to pray for particularly? I mean, we need to be praying for one another. Because some of you are going through more intense battles than others. Some of you are going through more intense struggles than others.

One thing to note here, as we conclude this letter, Paul doesn’t become absorbed, he is writing as a prisoner in Rome, but he is not absorbed with his own suffering and difficulties and trials. So, “pray at all times… with this in view, be on alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.” Be praying for one another. We give up on each other. We need to pray for one another. That’s what we do when we take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Then here’s how we act, we’re praying for one another. “And pray on my behalf.” Pray for me, you want to know something to pray about, “that utterance may be given to me, in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.” But Paul, you’re suffering. You see how he keeps his focus? I need to be careful to speak the truth of God boldly. That I might make known the mystery of the gospel. We have Jews and Gentiles, he’s not well, I’m going to play them apart. Back in chapter 2, and into chapter 3, he talked about God has made Jew and Gentile alike, into one body. So, pray for me. In chapter 6:19, 20 that I may “make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,” that Jew and Gentile alike. He didn’t play them off, he answered honestly.

But really, he’s not saying, pray that I’ll be set free, because this is just overwhelming, and I don’t know what I’m going to do. “I am an ambassador in chains,” which is strange because most ambassadors are free from that kind of bonds. They might be sent home, they might be called home. But they don’t get imprisoned. But he’s an ambassador in chains. That I “may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” I’ve got to come before Nero, he is an egomaniac. He’s going to end up dying at his own hands because his own people want to get rid of him. That “I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.” But that you also may know about my circumstances, how I’m doing, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will make known everything to you. I have sent him to you for this purpose, so that you may know about us, and that he may comfort your hearts.” I’m concerned about you. Don’t be worried about me. I want Tychicus to come, and he’ll tell you about my circumstances, and comfort your hearts. And be praying for me, that I’ll be bold. Not that I’ll get free, that I’ll be bold. “Peace be to the brethren, and love with the faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love.” I don’t know, they have some truth and some error. “Who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love.” That’s what I want, incorruptible love, in incorruption. Well, we’ll make adjustments. No, it’s a love incorruptible. And I want to be identified with those. Now, here I am in prison, I want you to put on the full armor of God, to be able to stand. Pray for me, that I’ll be bold with the gospel in my situation. And Tychicus will tell you about my situation, and he’ll comfort your hearts, cause you’ll know the Lord is taking care of me today.

We have 2 Timothy, Paul’s last letter, when he is not so sure he’ll be taken care of. But it’s the same positive result, I’m in the hands of the Lord. We want to be faithful to the end. So, the letter of the Ephesians pulls it all together. He concludes with talking about make sure you’re fully armored. And then some closing remarks, and the letter is done. We could compare it with Colossians, you can read that at your leisure, it was written at the same time. It’s very similar, and yet it has its differences. But in it all, I have to remind myself, Paul is a prisoner when he writes this. But Paul is concerned to be faithful. Not concerned first of all about my imprisonment. You know it’s hard and you know what its like to be chained to a pagan, godless man and its just more almost than I can bear and blah, blah blah. You don’t get that idea. I’m here, I’m here because God’s appointment, He’s sovereign, so I must be what He wants me to be. Pray for me, pray for my boldness. Pray for my speech. Pray that I’ll say what I should say, when I should say it and how I should say it. If we get that focused, pretty soon, the other things, they’re back here. Does it matter? Saul has been in the presence of the Lord for almost 2,000 years. I don’t think the imprisonment really matters. What matters, was his faithfulness, whether it’s in prison, whether it’s with difficult people, whether it’s good people, whether it’s with difficult people, my job, whether it’s difficult in my family. I have to be everything that God wants me to be. I have to be clothed in the armor, always. Because the Devil is relentless and firing his flaming darts, trying to find a weakness where he might enter.

Lets pray together. Thank you Lord, for Your riches of Your word. Thank you for this letter of Paul to the Ephesians, believers in Jesus Christ. He writes to encourage them. He writes to strengthen them. He writes that they put on the full armor of God. Lord, we remind ourselves, he is in prison, he’s a prisoner, he doesn’t have freedom to go here and there and wherever. Yet he is confident that he’s in the center of Your will. In the place where he can serve You. He wants to be faithful there. May we learn from him, learn from this letter that You have preserved as part of Your eternal word for us. May we be clothed in the armor You’ve provided. May we be the people that You would have us be. At all times and all situations, we ask in Christ’s name. Amen