Be Strong In the Lord

Transcript

GR 161
12/14/1975
Be Strong In the Lord
Ephesians 6:10-13
Gil Rugh

Ephesians and the Sixth Chapter in your bibles, please look down through the ninth verse of Chapter 6, interesting how Paul chooses to close a letter, in some ways it would seem that a fitting conclusion to the letter would simply be his discussion on the family, husband, wives, children and then in the slave master relationship, then you could pick up with verse 21, his personal comments and closing remarks. But he doesn’t, he brings in almost a new area, but an area that lies behind everything else he has talked about, that is the warfare or battle of the Christian. It kind of really end up where he began the study of the book of Ephesians or the writing of the letter, look back in Chapter 1.

Ephesians, Chapter 1 in verse 3; “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.” So at the beginning of this epistle he talked about the fact that we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. And now it is going to end in the same place only with us doing a little bit, having a little different activity in Chapter 6 and verse 12. Verse 12; we are told that our struggle is against, at the end of verse 12; the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies.

So he began the epistle talking about the blessings that were ours in the heavenlies in Christ. He is going to conclude the epistle by talking about the warfare that is going on in the heavenly. For those of us who are in Christ; very important section because there is a great danger that we as Christians might have the idea that when we trust Christ that is the end of our problem. From here on it is smooth sailing, I trusted Christ, I have been forgiven, my problems are resolved and that is not the biblical presentation at all. Now in one sense it is true, your problems are resolved, you have been forgiven your sins, you have now been brought into a relationship of reconcile to God, you are at peace with him. But what that involves on the other side is you have enlisted as a soldier in a very strenuous warfare. We have not to lose sight of that, that a new battle and a new conflict has begun the moment you believe in Jesus Christ as personal savior.

And often find this with new Christians, almost invariably in the glow of having trusted Christ, by the enthusiasm, the excitement, the joy, well I can go on like this forever. You know, whether it’s a few days, a few weeks or a few months down the road; that new Christian just gets clobbered and just totally deflated and then the question comes; what happened, what is wrong, I thought I trusted Christ, I thought that that meant that I was home free. We haven’t been honest, maybe I’m presenting the fact that you have begun a warfare; a warfare against an enemy who is bent on your destruction, and that warfare will not cease until one of two things happen.

Either Jesus Christ comes to take you to be with Himself with the rapture, or He takes you at death. That is the end of that conflict that conflict never ends, if anything it intensifies in your life as a believer. And if you are not aware of that then you are in for a life of defeat and discouragement and so on. So that is what Paul wants to talk about, the warfare of the believer in this section, verses 10 to 20. We are only going to look at the first few verses of the section and then some of the details in the subsequent weeks.

First area he wants to talk about is our strength and that is in verse 10. Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Go to battle; you have to know something about the strength and power that is available at your disposal and he starts out; finally be strong in the Lord. And that might give the idea as you read it that you are supposed to get yourself all worked up and ready for the battle, get yourself in good exercise – do some good exercise, now pump up all the power you can for this fight, but that is not what Paul says.

You might get that idea in the English here, there are different ways to phrase things, we call them different voices. In the active voice it means; I do something, I hit the ball that would be active voice, I did something. There is also the passive voice, and in the passive something is done to the subject, the ball hit me; that would be passive and Paul uses the passive here in verse 10. Now he doesn’t say; be strong, something you have to do but be strengthened or be empowered, something that is done for me, to me and in me.

This is not a strength that I work up, but it is a strength that is infused into me. I’m to be empowered or strengthened in the Lord by virtue of my relationship to him and being in him that his strength can be passed to me and through me and operative in me. So I’m to be empowered or strengthened in the Lord and at the last part of that, and in the strength of his might. Paul does the same thing here that he did earlier in the epistle and that is he powers up these words for power and might and strength, so you get some idea of the power and might of God that is operative. Therefore the warfare we are talking about, there is no human strength that comes anywhere near being adequate to go to battle. You need a supernatural divine strength, look back in Chapter 1.

Chapter 1, picking up with verse 18 for the sentence. Chapter 1, verse 18; I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling or rather riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might, same expression as we have in chapter 6 which he brought about when he raised Jesus from the dead and set him at the right hand of the Father in the heavenlies. You know if the same strength, the same power, the same might that was operative in establishing Jesus Christ at the right hand of the father by raising him from the dead, that is being infused into us that must be operative in our lives if we are to engage in this warfare in a victorious way.

Back to Chapter 6, first important area then; it requires a supernatural strength, the warfare we are talking about. Supernatural power, might and strength, now it has already been provided, saw that in Chapter 1. That power, might and strength is ours by virtue of being in Jesus Christ as Paul develops it here. Now, second thing that you must be aware of if you are going to go into this warfare is the armor that is necessary and we are going to do the details of the armor that is in verses 13 to 18 and we will pick them up next week but just the fact of the armor in verse 11 where he gives them instruction; put on the full armor of God.

Now a couple of things, you note it is the armor of God that is to be put on, it is a divine armor. So not only do we need a divine strength but we need a divine armor, a strength that God provides in an armor that God provides. Again there is a danger in the Christian life that we think; that now I’m a Christian that I can do everything and things have not changed one bit. I in of myself, I’m no stronger than I ever was, I in of my myself, I’m no more equipped to do battle in the spirit world than I ever was but in Jesus Christ I’m strengthened and I’m equipped and that is the armor. We are talking about here a divine armor, an armor that God provides, to put on the full armor, must pick up, you know we were talking about the active voice a minute ago.

The subject does something; I hit the ball or the passive voice; something happens to me, the subject, the ball hits me. Where there is the middle voice; I hit myself, I don’t know but that would be the middle voice, I hit myself, I do something to myself. Well in verse 11 that is the middle voice; put on, something that I’m responsible to do myself, I’m to put on myself the armor of God, that is important to note; there are two aspects of it.

God has provided the armor, it is the armor of God but it is my responsibility to see that I put it on. That would be the same analogy as with a Roman soldier for instance, that probably forms the background of this, the commander and so on will provide the armor that he needed, all the equipment but his chief didn’t necessarily come in and sitting down on the bed start to dress him, I mean why, we provide the armor and now you put it on, you are the soldier. And that is the responsibility for us as believers, God has provided the armor and we need to be wearing it and if I’m not; to that extent I’m vulnerable to the enemy. So there is a personal responsibility here, now if you are not even aware of what the armor is you probably don’t know whether to put it on or not and we will look at that and the details in the next couple of weeks.

Put on the armor, now the emphasis here is not only on the divine armor, not on my responsibility to put it on but on the completeness of the armament, it is the full armor of God, not just putting on armor but putting on the full armor, the panoply and that is the word we carry over in English, you can look it up in Webster’s dictionary, the definition is about the same. It is the full armor, the armor in its completeness, you just don’t put on some of the armor, you must put on the full armor, because if you do not put on the full armor and leave off a portion of it or a piece of it that means in that area you are now vulnerable to the attack of the enemy. And you have left off a portion of the armor in that area you are vulnerable and as we see we have such a crafty and adept enemy that he always knows where the weakness is and that is where he strikes. So put on the full armor of God.

You know Paul likes to use this expression and metaphor of military and soldiers and so on. Paul talks about the full armor here, keep in mind he spent three years chained to a soldier, a Roman soldier and that would be ample time to evaluate the armament that the soldier would wear. Paul talks about the full armor, he knows what he is talking about. He breaks down the full armor in verses 13 to 18. He has had three years at close contact to just see what all the pieces of armor are and the purpose that they serve. Those analogy comes from his own personal experiences writing this as a prisoner in Rome, thus would be a very clear analogy in his mind. Put on the full armor of God; turn back to Second Corinthians Chapter 10 if you would.

Second Corinthians and the Tenth Chapter page 283, just pick up another time he uses this analogy. Second Corinthians 10 verse 3; for though we walk in the flesh, and the flesh here means as human beings, not the flesh as we all mean but in the flesh, I mean we walk as human beings do, we do not war according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, they are not of human origin but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. So Paul uses the same analogy as writes to the Corinthians where in a warfare and it is not in a human Rome with human weapons but it is a divinely equipped warfare in order that I might destroy fortresses.

To begin to see something of the seriousness go back to Ephesians again; of the battle we are in when you see that it necessitates divine strength. It necessitates divine armor, you are going into a battle that you are not equipped without divine power. So we are not talking about unbelievers here, an unbeliever does not have the strength of God operative in his life. An unbeliever is not equipped by God for battle with the spirit forces.

Now why you have to put on this armor, at the end of verse 11; in order that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil, so here is the warfare which we are going to be engaging in and the enemy that we face, in order that you may be able to stand, so you put on the armor that you might stand, and important that emphasis on standing. Roman soldier, and those familiar with Roman soldiers would understand it very well. For a Roman soldier in battle who was put it to his knees it was as good as defeat because there was no way to do effective battle when you are no longer standing.

And Paul is concerned that we be standing in order that our defenses might be where they should be to protect us. And maybe I would have to stand against the schemes, interesting word it means the veils, the craftiness, the stratagems of the devil and brings up here the cleverness of the foe which we are battling against. He has the craftiness, the deceitfulness, the skill if you please of doing effective warfare. So we are not dealing with one that I can think; I have got a general knowledge of it, I have got sufficient armor, I’m going out against the clumsy foe and I’m sure that I can handle him.

We are dealing with one who is very crafty and deceitful so it is only used one other time and that is in Ephesians Chapter 4 in verse 14 and here it is used of men who are under the control of the devil. In Ephesians 4:14; as a result we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves, carried out by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and schemes of defeat or deceitful scheming. This scheming, this craftiness, same word that we are talking about with the devil’s schemes and craftiness, when you see that analogy that we have talked about before, the children of God manifest the character of God and by the same token the children of the devil manifest the character of the devil and he is a schemer, he is crafty and so are his followers.

So this is the kind of foe that we have, he is very crafty, you are going out against one who is very adept at warfare, spiritual warfare, so you better go out properly equipped or else you go out to discouragement and defeat. The devil is the one within you, he is the enemy and the bible presents very clearly again and again that there is a spirit world and the spirit world is divided into two divisions. There are unfallen spirits called angels ruled over by God, there are fallen spirits or fallen angels called demons ruled over by Satan. Now there are a lot of ideas on the devil and demonic subjects, are somewhat in vogue today. The bible presents the devil as a very real person and he is a created being, he has personality as you and I do, he functions as a person. He does not have the physical form that he is depicted as having whether it is horns and a tail or whatever, he is not in charge of hell.

He is not down there stoking the fires, he is not in hell at all. When he is hell it will be for eternity. The hell was prepared for him to suffer in not for him to rule over it. Now, just back up the Old Testament very quickly so we see the beginning of Satan. We are not going through the details, Isaiah 14 page 974, page 974 Isaiah 14, we are just going to pick out the section that applies to Satan and his foe and see who he was and what happened?. Isaiah 14 verse 12, and these pages in the New American Standard may vary two or three, one way or the other but it gets you into the general vicinity.

Verse 12 of Isaiah 14; how you have fallen from heaven, old star of the mornings, son of the dawn, you have been cut down to earth, you who weakened the nation but you said in your heart; I will ascend to heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars of God, I will sit on the mouth of assembly and in the recesses of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like the most high, nevertheless you will be thrust down the shield to the recesses of the pit. Now here is something of the character and career of Satan in his fall, his desire to establish his throne and thus be God and replace the God who is.

Look over in Ezekiel 28 page 1198, Ezekiel 28 just pick up at verse 14; you were the anointed cherub who covers and I placed you there, you were on the holy mountain of God, you walked in the midst of the stones of fire, you were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you. You are not the exalted position that Lucifer had, he was the anointed cherub that covered the throne of God. Perhaps the most in timid and exalted position among created beings. You know he was perfect when God created him, God did not create him as Satan, he was perfect until unrighteousness was found in him until by an act of his will he rebelled against God and tried to establish himself as God.

Luke verse 17; your heart was lifted up because of your beauty and I’m afraid that we have no concept of the beauty of Satan and his attractiveness usually depicted as something unpleasant and unattractive. Yet, we are told that because of his very beauty that was that he had an exalted attitude of himself. “You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor, I cast you to the ground” and so on so basically this is the devil and how he came to be the devil. He was an angel created by God as a cherub to cover the throne of God, very splendid and beautiful but he decided in his heart that he would rather be God, rebelled against God for that he lost his position before God in heaven.

Interesting thing that not only did Satan rebel against God Lucifer but a whole host of angels followed him in his rebellion against God and they too were cast in their position before God in heaven and they are the demons. Revelation Chapter 4 indicates -- may indicate that perhaps as many as one-third of the angels followed Satan in his fall after his rebellion against God. One more thing I want to note about Lucifer or Satan and that is he is a created being. He can only be in one place at one time, he is not here in the auditorium at Indian Hills Community church and in another church over here, in another part of the world over here and so on. Satan can only be in one place at one time. Now that may cause you to wonder why you have so much trouble with them then.

He never seem to leave does he, well the reason is; that he is a commander and ruler, we will be looking at this in a moment over a whole host of demons; those angels who followed him in his rebellion and evidently multiplied millions or billions of demons, are under the control and authority of Satan and this is how he carries out his program in the world. So Satan may not be here personally this morning, his demons are and they are all over to carry out his activity and we are engaged in a warfare against Satan and his hosts. Even if you say I don’t believe it, that is a myth and that is on and on, the only way I can know sure if there is such a thing as a spirit world, if there is such a person as the Devil as if God would tell me, because I have never functioned in the spirit world and neither have any of you and God says he is very real. And if you don’t know who your enemy is then you can be for in a very hard time as far as the battle goes.

So go back to Ephesians Chapter 6, Ephesians and the Sixth Chapter; we are fighting then against the schemes, the craftiness of the devil, so I think we are fighting against the most difficult of all created creatures. Now something about this enemy in verse 12. Paul backs up a little bit, reminds us; we are fighting against the schemes of devil, we need the whole armor of God for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, realize you need the armor of God and the strength of God because you are not fighting against flesh and blood, not fighting against another human being. You need to keep that in mind, the enemy which I fight against is not the liberal unbelieving creature down the road but it is the enemy Satan who is motivating and controlling that unbelieving creature down the road. So I need to be careful, lot more careful than he is so I can handle him but that is not who the battle is against.

The battle is against the forces of the spirit world. Now people are divided in two camps, you are either in the camp of the devil under the influence and control of evil spirits or you are in the camp of God under the influence and the control of his spirits but we need to keep in mind that battle goes beyond just human beings to those beyond -- behind human beings. So our struggle is not against flesh and blood, not against humanity but the positive side; what is it against. It is against and you know five times in this verse this word against is mentioned.

So preposition prose, it means originally meant to be face to face and thus in terms to mean to be with or against. And that denotes an inner man type of relationship and we are engaged in a battle he says against rulers, against powers, against world forces, against spiritual forces of wickedness denoting that inner man face to face confrontation. You have not to get the idea when we say Russia or China is the enemy of the United States, but you know they are so far removed, that is not the kind of battle that you and I are involved in as believers. We are involved in a face to face personal confrontation with the enemy. That is why we must be equipped, this is not a battle that takes place over a great expanse of territory but I’m face to face against the enemy that I’m confronting. Okay note how they are arrayed, let us say that we are against rulers, against powers, against world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies and it is the interesting the words that are used here because they denote a hierarchy and an order. There are words that are used in the human Rome of governmental arrangement.

The rulers; those in high position having authority, the power of those who are arrayed under them, the world forces, those who arrayed under the powers. Same words that we use when we are talking about our governmental structure and so we see within the demonic world there is a structure and arrangement, Satan is the God of this world according to Second Corinthians Chapter 4 and as the God of this world, the prince of the power of the air, Paul has talked about it in Ephesians Chapter 2. Under him are arrayed in an orderly fashion, the rulers, the powers, the world forces of wickedness and the very well organized and arranged army with which to do battle.

We don’t do battle against one who is in disarray but he has his force that is well arranged and well organized to accomplish his purposes. Now that which gives us a little bit of a glimpse periodically into the spirit world. This is one of those occasions, one in the Old Testament The Book of Daniel and the Tenth Chapter Page 1253, it is seen here; Daniel has prayed for an answer and Gabriel one of the angels of God and incidentally the angels of God are arranged according to a structure as well the fallen angels. We have Michael the Archangel; this is a position of authority over other angels. Here we have Gabriel being sent to Daniel and now verse 12 Daniel 10, then he said to me; Gabriel is speaking to Daniel, do not be afraid Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and humbling yourself before God, your words were heard, I have come in response to your word.

But, verse 13; the prince of the kingdom of purge was withstanding me for 21 days, now obviously a human prince of purge could not stand in Gabriel’s way, Gabriel is a spirit being. Gabriel passes through this room, none of us are going to stand up and stop him because we didn’t see him. So obviously the prince of purge; it is not talking about one of the human official but is talking about one of these rulers, these authorities, these forces of spiritual wickedness with in charge of purge. And in the spirit world he hindered Gabriel and because of the power and authority of these fallen demonic being over purge after three weeks Gabriel finally had a call for help from Michael the Archangel, Michael the Archangel because of his authority and power in the unfallen spirit world comes and asks Gabriel to go on his way. That is just a glimpse, he said “well I wish to develop that a little more I like to find out all these battles”.

We get some insight; I think if what is said in Daniel that the empires of the world are overseen by individual demonic spirit beings. So you have the devil who is the God of this world and when he offered Christ at the temptation the kingdoms of these world it was in his power to give them and he has arrayed under him rulers who are over each of the nations or kingdoms of the world and under these rulers are powers who rule over individual areas of these kingdoms and under them are the host of demonic world forces of wickedness. So I take it the United States has a demonic being ruling over it under the authority of Satan as does Russia and China and every other nation of the world. They are arrayed under the God of this world and under his host and forces. Now what concerns me is that these are those against whom I’m in battle and since this world is under their control, the God of this world that is why God says in the book of James that friendship with this world is enmity against God.

Because to be aligned with the world is to be aligned against God, there is no middle ground in this battle, there is nobody who hasn’t made up their mind yet whether -- either aligned with God or you are aligned with devil. And you could stop on your way back at Second Corinthians Chapter 4 as you go back to Ephesians. Second Corinthians Chapter 4 page 277 in the New Testament page, again Paul in verse 2 talks about those who walk because of sham and craftiness, adulterating the word with their and now verse 3; even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world Satan has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God and here you see one of the prime purposes of Satan as the God of this world is too keep his forces operating to keep people from responding in faith to the gospel so that they might not be saved and experience forgiveness of sins. Explains why many people don’t believe, they are under the control and domination of Satan who keeps them from believing.

Go back to Ephesians Chapter 6, we are told that this battle goes on the heavenlies and don’t turn back to or even jot down Job Chapter 1 because in Job Chapter 1 we have an interesting account verses 6 to 22 of the First Chapter; where-- when the angels of God come to present themselves before God we are told Satan came also among them. And here we find that even though Satan has lost his position as the anointed cherub he still functions in the heavenlies and even in the presence of God he is free to present himself and it is there that the challenge is given. If you consider my servant Job, there is none like him on the face of the earth. Satan says yes I have considered Job, but you have made a big baby out of him because you have overly protected him # and you will find out how he much loves you, and so the battle is arrayed in the book of Job.

Many find Job in a spiritual conflict related to the heavenlies he doesn’t’ even know about, he has got his hands full of scraping his boils sitting in ashes and he got to worry about spiritual conflict! But that is what he is involved in against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenlies. And we know that we have a representative in the heavenlies as well who is our advocate and our defense but we are told a revelation that in the midst of the tribulation Satan will finally lose his access to heaven and there is rejoicing in heaven why, because the accuser of our brethren is cast out. That is one of the functions of Satan, to present himself in the heavenlies in the presence of God and accuse me before God, but I have an advocate there who is to be my defense as well that his blood atone for every sin that I ever committed and thus Satan has no power over me.

All right but in Ephesians 6, this is the struggle that we are engaged in, not flesh and blood, rulers, powers, world forces of this darkness, you know this the world forces of this darkness, their control is among the realm of the unbelievers and we are arrayed against them, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies. These are spirit creatures, now a couple of things, just a couple of other passages I want to draw your attention to, other places in the New Testament about this warfare and what we need to keep in mind about it.

First over in First Corinthian -- First Peter Chapter 5 First Peter in the Fifth Chapter page 359 verse 8; be of sober spirit, be on the alert, your adversary the Devil prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour but resist him firm in your faith. You know our adversary what he is doing, he is prowling like a hungry lion looking for someone who is not on guard so that he might pounce upon him, that is the kind of adversary we have, we have not the alternative or the option as believers to choose whether or not we will be soldiers, whether or not we will be engaged in a conflict.

The moment you trust Jesus Christ as savior you are enrolled as a soldier. The moment you trust Jesus Christ as savior, you became a child of God. The moment that happened, you became the enemy of the devil and there are no white flags in this battle. You cannot run with a white flag and say Oh, please go away, I don’t want to fight anymore, I want to rest that is not an option, because as soon as I let down my guard that hungry lion is ready to pounce. That scheming enemy is ready to run me through in a spot of weakness so I need to be careful of my adversary and be on the alert all the time, of sober spirit, on the alert.

Back up to Second Timothy and that is page 326, Page 326 Second Timothy Chapter 2, as you know it is easy to sing a song, you know onward Christian soldiers and of course I’m a soldier, you need to keep in mind and what his character is and what his function is and Paul writing to Timothy, the last letter of Paul’s life as here is the end of his soldiering, he has some instructions to Timothy and now what he says in Chapter 2 verse 3 Second Timothy now; suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus, no soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who has enlisted him as a soldier.

Being a soldier in active service entails hardship and as a believer I don’t come to the place where I’m no longer in active service. Remember when my soldiering days are over, Jesus Christ whether he come for me at the rapture or he will take me at death that is when I’m done soldiering. I don’t say well I have been soldiering all these years, it is time for somebody younger to take over, we have to be careful about that because you know you are telling God that I’m tired of being a soldier, you better take me home. And say “wait a minute I don’t know if I want to die, I want to enjoy now, I mean I have been in all these battles, that is not a choice, we have to be soldiering here until the day he takes us to be with himself, then we retire, reap the treasures that have been laid out, get the rewards for the soldiers and so on. There is no such thing as retired soldier in God’s army in this life.

Now I had funerals for retired soldiers, those that God has seen fit to take home, their battling here was done, their purposes were accomplished here, he was ready for them to come home that is when soldiering is over. So if you live to be 92 as a believer, you will be a soldier on active duty that means you have to suffer hardship, here is Paul at the end of his physical life. But he hasn’t quit soldiering, he doesn’t tell Timothy; well I fought the battle Timothy now, at least you will have it a little easier. He says get ready for the hardship and a warning; a soldier does not entangle himself in the affairs of this life. You know you can be a soldier and get all caught up in this life, a life of a soldier is a life of hardship and we lose sight of that, we look at others and say look at them, look at what all they have got, look at their doing, look at all they have got, of what?

You know my brother was in Vietnam a few years ago, well he was over there soldiering, I was here relaxing you know sitting in my nice comfortable couch, stuffing my face, driving around a comfortable car making sure the air-conditioning is running as it should and the heat when it should and you know not much deprivation for me. He was over there writing letters about you know what he was doing without and how the conditions were on and so on. What was the difference, he was a soldier on active duty and I wasn’t.

Now we live in a midst of a world with people who are not soldiering for Jesus Christ and the danger is that I want to become like them because naturally it is more appealing to look over there and see someone who has got it so easy and so nice seemingly and I’m suffering hardship but the difference is they are not soldiering, I’m. And as a soldier I have no business getting involved in these affairs. My only job as a soldier is to function in the battle, you know great I’m going to be a soldier for Jesus Christ, I think I will go to the battle, pack my stereo, get my car ready and make sure I have got some steak sandwiches for my lunch and I’m going out to do some battle, but I will be home for this evening, don’t worry, that is not the kind of battle that is.

What do you take when you are going soldiering; you take the equipment of a soldier. Who would want to go out on the battlefield with a stereo packed on his back? Can you imagine in the Roman days, a Roman soldier trying to do battle carrying his lunch box and all these other paraphernalia, well that is not important when you are soldiering. The only thing important is your armor and your weapon. And we sing on “we are Christian soldiers” and here we are all loaded down with everything but the kitchen sink and we are going soldiering as we prop up and watch another program, really roughing out as soldiers! We don’t keep in mind that the life of a soldier is hardship.

Back in Luke Chapter 14, after we get done some of you who have signed up may think that you wish you could resign but you know what that is like in the United States military. After you have signed up and say hey it is harder, I think I will drop out, that is not an option that is not an option in God’s army either, you have to praise the Lord for that, no one gets an early discharge. Luke Chapter 14 page 117; Jesus was asked when he dealt with those who wanted to follow him; he told them beforehand what they were getting into.

We sometimes give people a wrong impression that you will solve your problems; it would be nice and easy, like all the joy, all the peace, all the happiness that you ever wanted. Jesus made it a little more clear verse 25 of Luke 14, that great multitude who were going along with him, he turned and said to them, anyone who comes to me does not hate his own father and mother, children, brothers, sisters, yes his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Who does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple and evaluating the cost in the analogy of a building.

Over to verse 31; or what king when he sets out to me another king in battle, why not first sit down and take council whether he is strong enough with 10,000 men to encounter the one coming against him with 20,000, elsewhere the others still far away sends a delegation and ask terms of peace. No you count the cost beforehand, so verse 33 what is the cost, so therefore no one of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. Jesus replying; you want to be my disciple, let me tell you count the cost, it is like if you are going to build a house or a building, just like you would if you are going to war. Now here is the cost, you can’t be my disciple if you don’t give up everything that belongs to you. No personal possessions for those who are going to be my disciples # I mean he has called me to be a soldier for him, he says you can bring nothing with you, I will provide you with the armor, I will provide you with the strength, everything else is left behind.

# Paul writes elsewhere well you are not your own, you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. We live pretty easy lives here as soldiers. You say, we say yes I want to be a soldier, you sing the song “must I be carried through the skies and flowery beds of ease,” that is not even an option, we might as well as sing about it because you can’t get carried through the skies because you are in the battle. The only question is if you are soldiering in such a way to please Jesus Christ. You are all entangled and snared in the affairs of this life.

Yeah, I have to be a good soldier but I have got this going and that going, you can’t tell the difference between a Christian soldier and an unbeliever who is not even involved. We become so much like them and your wish was to be soldiers enduring hardships. If you look at my life I don’t see any difference in those who are not even soldiering, that is different than a soldier we see in the physical Rome who is in active combat as we watch the news reels and so in television I see a marked difference between a soldier in active combat, his lifestyle and my lifestyle but somehow we have lost sight of that in the spiritual Rome.

I’m a soldier enduring hardship in a battle with Jesus Christ and yet there is no difference between me and those who are not soldiering. I think that says something about the type of soldiers that we are, one of the key fiends of the devil is to ruin us as soldiers like causing us to become entangled and ensnared in this life. Me, not have my own possessions, of course everything I have is Jesus Christ, of course and I know the verse. However in our life we realize that, I wonder if he needs all this, you know I run up to my commander-in-chief and say look what I bought you. Look at the good stuff we have got, look at the great investments I have made for you. I wonder what he thinks, here we are in mortal combat with the enemy and look what you have brought me, I’m sorry I’m not interested I have to be a soldier of Jesus Christ.

One other thing, look back in Ephesians Chapter 6, if you look at verse 13 just for a moment because we are going to pick up with this verse next week, I want you to note a parallel idea with it in Ephesians 6:13, therefore take up the full armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day, the evil day is not something future. This is the evil day, the day in which we live, the day that is under the control of the forces of the God of this world, this is the evil day in which we must be able to stand and having done everything to stand firm. In other words this goal for us is that we stand again as a Roman soldier would, the moment he went down on his knees, the battle was lost because you cannot fight in that kind of battle on your knees or on your back. You must stand and stand in the evil day and stand firm all the way to the end.

Turn over to the Second Timothy Chapter 4 again if you would. Second Timothy and the Fourth Chapter page 328, here we see Paul having stood in the evil day and now at the end of his life still standing firm and the testimony that he brings to that in verse 7. At the end of his life now and comes to be a time of contemplation and reflection, Second Timothy 4:7, at the end of verse 6 he says that the time of my departure has come, we mean this physical departure, leaving this life. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith, in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge would award to me on that day not to me only but to all those who have loved his appearing, you know Paul’s attitude. Come the end of his life and faces physical death, “I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith”, was he looking forward to death? The crown that has been laid up for him, we are talking about all the good investment he made, all the things he acquired, why they are irrelevant.

He has been a soldier, the only thing that matters is that he has been a good soldier because now he is going to be rewarded as a soldier. And he excitedly looks forward to that time with anticipation because I have been a good soldier, I have fought a good fight and that is all that matters because now I have a crown laid up for me which the Lord, the righteous judge will give me. So what are we soldiering for, for what we get here, no. For the time we will stand before him and he will say well done and good in faithful service. The time we stand before him and the rewards are bestowed upon us for soldiering in a manner pleasing to him, suffering hardships now and sharing in his glory then. One word, maybe here I say well I’m not a believer yet and that is fine, I’m glad I have found this out ahead of time, I think I just won’t sign up, well that is an option, however you need to realize where you are.

The world of the spirits is aligned in two camps under Satan, demons, under God, angels and every single person is aligned in one of those two camps as well. You are either a believer in Jesus Christ aligned under the authority of God, his control and his power or you are an unbeliever and thus aligned under the control, influence and domination of the devil. You say no I’m neither, I’m my own man, that is simply an indication you are a man in a state of rebellion against God and thus under the control and influence of the devil and his whole purpose in your life is to do anything that is necessary to keep you from coming to the place of believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ, that gospel being that you are a sinner and Jesus Christ died for your sins.

He arose from the dead because he had paid the penalty for your sins, and if you will place your faith in him, you will be forgiven your sin, you will be cleansed from all # brought into a personal relationship with God and become a soldier in the conflict in God’s army, as it is now you are on the devil side. Roman Chapter 6 talks about this, as an unbeliever you present yourself all the time as a weapon of unrighteousness that the devil uses. But the moment you become a believer of Jesus Christ you are to become a weapon for righteousness, to manifest the character of God.

God has done it all, it is his strength, it is his army, it is his enabling that gives the victory, you and I as believers are simply to function in the strength, wearing the armor that he has given, avoiding the entanglements that he has forbidden in order that we might soldier in a manner pleasing to him and his cause.

Let’s pray together. Our Father, we thank you again for your word and for its clarity. Lord even for this insight into the battle and conflict in which we are involved, Father the world forces of darkness and spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies, Father we thank you for freeing us from the domination of sin, from the control of the one who was our spiritual father the devil, moved by a simple faith in Christ. We now can claim you as our Father, Lord to have your strength, empowering us day by day and moment by moment.

Father help us to be sensitive to the conflict and battle that we are in, to be willing to suffer hardships, to not become entangled in this life so that we might soldier in a manner that is pleasing to you. We pray that we will be soldiering with our eyes fixed on the goal of seeing Jesus Christ and enjoying him. I will pray for those who are here but not yet believed in Jesus Christ, who are not yet members of the body of Christ, Father they are still under the control and domination of the forces of wickedness, but even now the spirit might enlighten their hearts and minds, that they might see the truth of gospel, that they might believe in the savior that you provided, for we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.