A Holy War, Part 1 | Eph. 6:10-13 (Mark Evans)

Many of the most dangerous jobs in America are actually ordinary ones like being a roofer or a garbage collector. Similarly, being a Christian is a dangerous vocation as it involves intense spiritual warfare against an unseen enemy. The Christian is commanded to be strong, but not in their own strength. They must be strong in the Lord and rely on His power. Every Christian is enrolled in this war and must put on the whole armor of God. This armor is not man-made, but supplied by God and symbolizes being clothed in Jesus Christ. The goal of this battle is to defeat Satan, but it cannot be done alone. The Christian must rely on the strength of the Lord. Well, if you were to do a quick search of the most dangerous jobs in America, it might surprise you to see just how ordinary are some of those jobs. And now, certainly, you'll find some jobs that you would expect as dangerous to make the list. Jobs like being a fighter pilot, a bomb technician, a bullfighter, even an avalanche rescue responder. All vocations that evoke the idea of danger in their title alone. But you may be surprised to find that many of the most ordinary jobs out there, even the most mundane jobs out there, are, in fact, the most dangerous jobs. Jobs like being a roofer, a garbage collector, a delivery driver, even the humble farmer. These all make the list as to the most dangerous jobs due to their injury rate, even their fatality rate. And what we have this morning is an even greater surprise from Ephesians 6, as it's this wake-up call that goes out to the ordinary, everyday Christian. It's a wake-up call to the ordinary Christian for him or her to realize that they are enrolled in a most dangerous vocation. Because what Ephesians is about to tell us is that the ordinary Christian is enrolled in a most intense spiritual war, that to be in Christ is the same thing as to be in combat. And not only that, but such combat is with an unseen enemy, a spiritual enemy whose stated goal is to steal, to kill, and to destroy you. But what good news it is that the Christian wages warfare from a position of decisive victory, a victory that belongs to the one who is far above all rule, all authority, all power, all dominion. And it's from that position that the Christian is to stand firm. So we'll walk through this text, looking at three simple portions of the Christian's warfare. Firstly, the battle cry in the first two verses. Secondly, what is the battlefield that this battle takes place on? And lastly, what is the goal of this battle? All with the main point that Christians are to be fully armed to stand firm, fully armed to stand firm. So beginning with the battle cry in verse 10, Paul starts with that word, finally. Now why finally? It's as if Paul is saying, in summary, in conclusion, right, just imagine as this letter is being read out loud there at Ephesus, which it would have been, it's as if Paul is telling the saints, I've told you of all the riches of what it is to belong to Jesus Christ. I've told you of the lavish grace that is yours, what it is to be redeemed by His blood, the inheritance that is yours, the spiritual blessings that are yours, what it is to go from death to life, from wrath to grace. I've said all I can say. I've taught everything I can teach. And now, finally, from this point on, this is what you must do. It has this feel of when Jesus is sending out His disciples as sheep among wolves in a hostile world, saying, finally, do this. And you see what it is we are to do. This command, this battle cry in verse 10, which is, be strong, or better translated, be strengthened. The Christian must become strong. This is a command, an imperative. The Christian is not allowed to be weak. And if you think about that command, to be strong, seriously, soberly, for but just a minute, you would say, but I'm not strong. I am weak. I am sinful. I fail. I fall. And so you can see what Paul points us to, this precise nature of how it is that we are to be strong, that the Christian is not looking for power from within, that this is not a self-strength. You see so clearly how the Christian is to be strong as Paul completes the command saying, be strong in the Lord. See, we're already off on the wrong foot. If we read the command to be strong as if, okay, God has done his part in my life, and now I take over and I do my part, right? God got me started, and now I take over to fight the fight. No, no, no. You see, indeed, the Christian is the one who is to be strong. Let's not confuse it. The responsibility of strength lies with you. But the only path forward to strength is in the Lord. As Paul says, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of God's might. There is no sense in which the Christian is to be strong in the strength of his own or her own might. And this is so obviously in direct contrast to the sermons of this world that constantly preaches the anthem of self-empowerment, self-reliance. How many times have you heard? You can do it. Believe in yourself. Believe in strength from within. My favorite, dig deep and harness your inner power and endless other poisonous platitudes that would have man believe in the delusion that he can be strong in himself and in his own might. It is the way of pride that ends in death. But does this ask, why is it you cannot be strong in yourself? Well, at least two reasons. Firstly, because we are creatures. We are created beings. And the very essence of being created by our Creator is that we are entirely dependent upon Him. It is in Him and Him alone that we live and move and have our very being. All things are upheld by the word of God's power. There is not one single thing you can do apart from God's providential power. Secondly, added to that, we are not only creatures, we are fallen creatures. We are not just flesh. We are sinful flesh. And therefore, wholly disabled, powerless to do any kind of spiritual good that requires spiritual strength. And yet, here is this command, to be strong. And so the right instinct would be, but I can't be strong. And Paul would say, yes, I know. Therefore, be strong in the Lord. It's somewhat like just before Jesus departed His disciples, He told them, wait here for power from on high. Wait here. What was He telling them? It's as if He was saying, I'm going to be with you. I will send my promised Holy Spirit to empower you, to strengthen you, to fight the good fight. I am not going to leave you defenseless or powerless. And so you see, that is the Christian's strength program, as it were. One of expectant dependence, looking upwards, not within. Being filled with the Spirit, not filled with self. We need only remember the prayer we looked at in Ephesians 3, where Paul prayed that very thing. That he prayed to be strengthened with power through the Spirit in his inner being. That is the Christian's pleading posture for power. And next, Paul is going to tell you exactly why you need this strength, right? If we ask the question, well, what am I going to use all this strength for? And in one word, you could say war. That the Christian, every Christian is enrolled in a war. Every man, every woman, every child is engaged in a fight to the death. And in this war, there is no way to opt out. You cannot be a draft dodger. You cannot flee to Canada in hopes of avoiding this war. No one opts out. Every Christian is conscripted in this holy warfare. And you see that very summons in this simple command in verse 11, which is to put on. A verb simply meaning to get dressed, to put on a garment, to clothe oneself. And you see, what that garment is, is actually armor. Paul says, put on armor. And that imagery would have been very familiar to Paul's audience. Think of the Roman soldier who had this complete set of armor, had a helmet, had a breastplate, had a spear, had a sword. And the idea was never that, well, so long as you have a couple pieces of armor, that would suffice. No, the expectation was always that you were armed to the fullest extent, never missing a single piece of armor. I know for us at military school, it would have been unthinkable to fall in for inspection and not have your rifle. And then tell your cadre, well, at least I have some equipment with me. Now, you would have been rebuked swiftly. And we deceive ourselves as Christians in thinking that our spiritual warfare is any less demanding. So look what verse 11 says. Not just put on some armor, not just a few pieces, but put on the whole armor. Every single piece of equipment must be put on. And we'll explore those specifics more next week. Right now, we're to notice just how comprehensive that command is, that the Christian is to be armed to the hilt, always on the ready. As of right now, we could simply say that being fully armed means that we don't get to say, for instance, well, prayer, it's just, it's not really my thing. That's more for the spiritual guy. Or the reading of God's Word and storing of God's Word in my heart, it's just something I could make do without. The fellowship of the saints is something I don't really particularly need. I could take it or leave it. That would be as foolish, as perilous as the soldier who says, I'm heading off to war, but I think I'll leave my rifle behind. Because look at what kind of armor this is. What is the essence of this armor? You see it in verse 11. It's not handcrafted. It's not carnal weaponry. It's not man's armor. You see, this armor is the armor of God. In other words, the armor that God Himself supplies by the strength of the Spirit. And in an even greater sense, it means the armor that Jesus Christ Himself wore. That He came to fight the battle of all battles. That He came to defeat the strong man. That He came to destroy the one who has the power of death. That is the devil. And to disarm Him and to put Him to open shame by triumphing over Him. And how did He do that? But by wearing the armor of light. And in the strength of the Spirit. That's why in a sense when you read these words, put on the armor of God, you could just as easily say that means put on Jesus Christ Himself. Put on the new man. There are no random swords. There are no abstract shields. But a Christian's warfare means being clothed in Jesus Christ. Because if we're talking in terms of a battle cry, let's be clear. The Christian is not summoned to defeat or to conquer Satan as an army of one. And why not? Well, because give him a thousand tries and man will fail every single time and be sifted like wheat. And so certainly we ought not to give Satan too much credit, just as we ought not to give him too little credit. Because though defeated, he still carries a great bite. I remember once my two sons and I were with my father-in-law out in his land in East Texas. And he had cornered and caught, trapped this copperhead snake. And he brought out this copperhead snake in front of myself and in front of my two boys and dumped it on the ground. And then he proceeded to take out his machete and with just a couple of strokes he lopped the head off that copperhead snake. But, and you may know this, even though decapitated, that snake still continued to wiggle and to writhe. And so my boys, as boys do, they're fascinated by this sight. And so they start to creep closer and closer, wanting to get a better peek at this decapitated snake. And so my father-in-law said, oh boys, stand back. No, that snake's head is decapitated. Even though that body seems dead, I promise you, that bite can still kill you. There's still plenty of venom left in those fangs. And so you had better stay back. And Christians, same for you. Know your enemy. Though Satan has been defeated by the death, resurrection of Christ, and there could not be a more decisive victory than his victory, there's still plenty of venom left in his fangs. And he prowls about looking to kill the careless Christian. And indeed, if you're here this morning and not a Christian, know that this is a war you have already lost. You have already been defeated. You are already held captive, blinded by him, blinded to see the glory of Jesus Christ, blinded to see the reality of your sin under a holy and just God. And the good news is that this King came to do what you could not do, to crush the head of the serpent and to free you from your sin. And he beckons to you now to come in faith and trust him and him alone. And so what then is the Christian to do? Well, the call is not to defeat Satan, but you see this command continue. As Paul says, put on this armor so that we can stand against him. It's this idea of resistance. As James says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Or as 1 Peter says, your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion. Resist him firm in your faith. That is the Christian stance, one of resistance, standing opposed to Satan. And you see specifically, verse 11, what it is we're standing against are these schemes. The Greek word methodeia, as in methodology, the method to Satan's madness, that he disguises himself as an angel of light, that there is none craftier than him. And we are not to be ignorant as to his schemes. And so that raises the question, well, what are Satan's schemes? How does Satan work? Well, the answer is as varied as it gets, but we know from Scripture there are two main ways as to Satan's craft and trade, that he works in terms of accusation and he works in terms of deception. Firstly, in terms of accusation, that Satan hurls doubts at you. He heaps blame upon you to prosecute you with your guilt, to weaken your conscience. Have you always doubting, always questioning, right, to impress upon you you're not the Christian that you say you are. You do not have a claim to the love of God in Christ. You are a hypocritical Christian, a condemned Christian, in fact, not a Christian at all. And before very long, all you see is your disease and you cannot see the remedy. Secondly, Satan's schemes in terms of deception, right? We see this with our first parents, that oh so sly question, right? Did God really say, did God actually say you can't have of any tree? This is how Satan operates, proposing half-truths, twisting Scripture, all to call into question the character of our generous and gracious God in the most subtle of ways, that He's not so generous after all, using everything from affliction to affluence to trick the Christian that the life of godliness is not worth living, or have you think you're living the life of godliness when you are actually strained. As one Puritan said, Satan will tell you 100 truths, get you listening so that on the 101st time he can tell you a lie, right? Evil rarely looks evil until it is already too late. And so what is the Christian to do? Well, our great God has not left us defenseless. He has not left you unarmed. He has sent you out with Christ as your victorious king to be aware of Satan's schemes, and to be able to wrestle against them, to simply be aware, first of all, that you are in a fight. I know for me, wrestling was my sport of choice growing up, and I remember once at a wrestling match, one of our wrestlers, I don't know why, to this day, for whatever reason, didn't hear the ref blow the whistle to start the match. So he's just standing there at ease, and before he knows it, his opponent has him on his back and pinned. And all I can do is come back and sheepishly say, I didn't even know the match had begun. I didn't even hear the whistle. And Christian, may that not be you. Do not be caught unaware. The wrestling match has begun. The whistle has been blown, and you are enlisted in this fight until your final breath. And the only difference being the nature of our wrestling match, and you see it there in verse 12, in that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. And so now, let us look at the battlefield. What does the divine reconnaissance say? You can think of this section like a kind of scouting report that has come back from the field of battle to tell us what is the enemy and who it is that we are wrestling against. And you can see just how ominous this portion is. I know for me, I'd much rather wrestle against something I can see, something I can touch, something I can grab. But as verse 12 says, we have no earthly opponent. We have no physical enemies. We have no human enemies. Instead, our true enemy is a spiritual enemy that we cannot see. Now sometimes this verse is misapplied as if to say, well, because we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, therefore, Christians should not oppose any kind of social movement, any kind of political movement, any kind of ideology, because those, after all, are earthly opponents and we fight a spiritual war, right? We don't want to be fighting the wrong fight. But this overlooks the very basic truth, which is that Satan operates in and through the things of this world, right? The powers of darkness are like leaven that gets in the bread and works throughout the entire loaf. You might remember Jesus warned the disciples this very thing. He said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Very human things, very visible things. But what was he saying? He was saying, behind their teaching lies this demonic spirit. Indeed, it is this force that Paul points us to at the end of verse 12. And look how just impressive, how formidable this opposing army is that the Christian faces. It consists of rulers, authorities, cosmic powers over this present darkness, spiritual forces, all of which are located in the heavenly places, right? This is clearly a structured fighting force that presents a united front to the church organized in this unseen realm, this invisible realm. As B.B. Warfield said, Christianity holds to an unembarrassed supernaturalism when it comes to warfare. And so you, the Christian, are to be aware that your daily battles, weekly battles, yearly battles so often have a deeper impulse behind them. Because indeed, true spiritual warfare is so often not in the dramatic moments of life, but can be in the mundane, the very ordinary rhythms of life that slowly derail the Christian. You might remember C.S. Lewis describing that senior demon Screwtape, advising the younger demon Wormwood. And he tells him, do you realize how much harm can be inflicted upon the Christian simply by way of distraction? Make the attention wander, all very innocently, just to slowly lure the Christian away from prayer, away from work, away from the Bible, right? In his own words, the demon Screwtape put it this way, it does not matter how small the sins are, just as long as their cumulative effect is to nudge the man away from the light. So verse 12 teaches us there is a deeper spiritual battle at work that we can so easily overlook. I'm sure for you, you've had the experience of saying, man, I'm just having one of those days. I'm just having one of those weeks, right? Everything seems to be going wrong. I'm on my way to the doctor and I get a flat tire and then I get a call from a home that the roof is leaking and on top of all, my husband is out of town, right? One thing after another. And it's easy to think in those moments, well, that's all there is to reality, right? The world would have you think like a materialist, that all I can see, all that's in front of my eyes, that is reality. And verse 12 says, no, there are deeper forces at work. Now, of course, you don't want to fall into the other side of the ditch that leads to charismatic mania, right? Scripture does not say we are to locate and pinpoint the particular demon that lurks behind every single headache that I have or every calorie in every food that adds weight to my body. No, we know, too, we also battle against our sinful flesh. We battle against the world and we battle against these spiritual forces. And Paul says, your command, put on the armor and to pray and to be aware of these cosmic powers over this present darkness. It was as Abraham Kuyper said, imagine if you could take a curtain and you could pull back that curtain and when you pull back that curtain, the spiritual world suddenly came into your vision. He said that would expose to you a spiritual war so intense, so violent that the fiercest battle fought on earth would seem by comparison a mere game. That's the reality of this deeper conflict. And so the Christian is always to have that perspective, that my real enemy lies in the heavenlies and when we encounter flesh and blood manifestations, those are just pawns of a greater power, right puppets of a greater master. Like when Jesus confronted Judas, he knew that it was not Judas he was doing business with, but the satanic spirit that lay behind and worked through Judas. We see the same thing in our own day on the individual level, whether it's in your temptations, your daily lust, and we see it in the macro level, right? Whether it's movements like LGBTQ or feminism or D.I. or any other number of movements that bring destruction in their wake, that these are just manifestations of the deeper war waged by the principalities and powers above. Well, that brings us to our third point. Well, okay, what then is the goal of all this warfare, right? What would victory look like for you, the Christian, in fighting this war? But before we get to that, delayed gratification, notice Paul says, verse 13, therefore, as in light of these principalities and powers, therefore, take up the whole armor of God. Now I can imagine a kind of know-it-all person there at Ephesus put up his hand and say, Paul, wait just a minute, you're repeating yourself. You already told us that. You already said put on the armor and now you're repeating yourself. I can imagine Paul lambasting such a person because that Paul repeats himself ought to tell us that putting on this armor is in no way automatic, that putting on this armor must be done with diligence and deliberateness, otherwise Paul would not tell us twice to do it. I can't tell you how many times my wrestling coach would show us a move, show us a technique. We go to perform the move and just in a few repetitions we have to go back to coach, say, coach, I'm sorry, we already forgot the move. We're already doing it wrong. We're doing it incorrectly. Could you show us again? And how much more for your spiritual wrestling? This is why daily we are to renew our minds. Why it is that we're not merely to pray, but to pray without ceasing, to not just glance at our Bibles, but to store up God's Word in our heart, treasure it up in our heart. Right? What soldier would say, oh yes, I remember when I put on my armor. It was about three months ago. I remember it well. No, a soldier daily is putting on the armor of God because he knows that every day a fresh war is coming. And so too for the Christian. And all of it comes to a head now in this one goal, this one summit of victory that is quite surprising because you see the point of all this armor, all this training, all this wrestling is as verse 13 says, so that you can withstand in the evil day. The end goal is simply to be left standing. I remember once the great pastor, Professor Sinclair Ferguson, told us that when he was a young Christian man, he would read this passage, in particular this goal of being left standing and think to himself, that's it? That's the goal? Like that just seems so anticlimactic, that seems so boring, right? Where's the put on the armor and charge the hill? Where's the put on the armor and take this bunker? And then Dr. Ferguson said, the older he got, the wiser he got. The more he grew in grace, he realized what an awesome thing it would be on the last day to say I was left standing because you see the Christian is up against this evil day, which could mean in an apocalyptic sense, but more likely simply means the Christian is withstanding all the forces of evil, all the principalities that bear down upon the Christian to sift him or her like wheat. For how many of us can so easily bring to mind so-called Christians who we once knew were fast faith? Oh yes, at a time they were walking, they were running the race, they seemed to be living a life of godliness, even having the Spirit of God working within them. But now they're not running, they're not walking, now they're not even standing. It seems they have fallen never to recover. And the only thing that separates you from them is the grace of God and the Spirit of God at work in you. And such grace is not to be confused with being passive or being slothful. You see in verse 13, that to be left standing requires this, quote, having done all to stand firm, that the Christian is summoned to do everything that there is to do, having agonized in the faith, fighting the good fight, putting on the armor, putting forth all of the exertion, energy, toil, discipline, diligence, just to be left standing firm, to say better to suffer greatly than commit the smallest sin. I remember one of the very first times I wrestled, I was shocked, I couldn't believe how exhausting it was, that just in a few moments you're already out of breath, you already feel like you need to sit down. And how much more is the Christian's wrestling? The spiritual exertion summoned to do everything that there is to do to be left standing. And maybe you say, well, wait a minute, if I'm to do everything, if I'm the one agonizing, if I'm the one putting all the discipline, is this not a man-centered, works-based approach to Christian warfare? And Paul would say, no, not the least. Go back to verse 10, be strong. You are the one who is to be strong, but the only way you can be strong is by the grace of God in His Spirit working in you. As Philippians so wonderfully says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. And what is the only way you can do that? Because God is at work in you both to will and to do. That as 1 John says, not greater are you, but greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. That is the tension of the Christian's warfare, that the Christian resists the devil with all his might, knowing it's not actually his might, it's not actually her might, it is the Lord's strength at work in the Christian. And so, as we begin to close, let us treasure up in our hearts three ways we are to wage this warfare against our great enemy. Firstly, know where you stand. Know where you stand. As you've seen, one of the main verbs of this section is to stand. The goal is to be left standing. But always remember where you already stand in Christ. The Christian does not occupy this post alone or stand alone. No, remember what Paul has told us. The Christian already, right now, is seated with Christ in the heavenly places. Right? Where is Christ? Christ is far above all rule, all authority, all power, all dominion. And so the Christian stands firm from this position of enthroned victory. The Christian stands firm in union with the risen Savior who is with us always. Stand remembering that truth. Secondly, choose the right armor. Choose the correct armor. You might remember David, before fighting Goliath, he first puts on Saul's armor, tries it on, and then he says, no, this won't do. This is not going to work. And then he chooses armor that, in every way to the world, looks small, looks weak, to be honest, looks even ridiculous. You remember how Goliath taunted him. But David knew he had the right armor. And he said, I come at you, not so much with slings, not so much with stones, I come at you in the name of the Lord. And the Philistines despised his armor. And so, too, with the Christian's armor, that the Christian arms himself or herself with weapons that the world does not understand, that to the world look weak, look small, look despised, weapons like word and sacrament, weapons like prayer, weapons like the fellowship of the saints, and meeting together on the Lord's day, right? These are spirit weapons that God has given to us. And it falls to us to take them up and to put them on. And thirdly, above all, confidence in your king. Confidence in your king. It's worth asking, of all the ways to close a letter, why has Paul chosen this way to close Ephesians? After we scaled these great heights, now comes this warning. Is it to foster fear inside of us? Is it to promote worry, discouragement, despair, maybe in a sense of hopelessness, telling us that you fight so great an enemy? I trust you see it's exactly the reverse. And indeed we do face a great enemy, but how far superior is our king? The one who takes all enemies and makes them his footstool. The one who has conquered the principalities and powers and put them to open shame. The one who has promised that even the gates of hell will not prevail against his church. Christian, that is your confidence. He is your confidence. He is the right man on your side. He's the right man on my side. And but one little word shall fell him. Let us pray. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, indeed we do praise You that You have given us the right man on our side, the Lord Jesus Christ, who himself confronted the strong man who defeated him by his life, by his death, by his resurrection, that he is installed at Your right hand so far above every rule, authority, power, and dominion. And so we do pray for us as Your Christian shoulders that You would teach us what it is to take up the whole armor of God, to having done everything to be left standing on that last day, knowing that it was never us standing, but that it was You standing within us by Your awesome grace. And so we pray that we would lay this up in our hearts and that You would train our hands for war and our fingers for battle. In Christ's name we pray, amen.