Ephesians - Lesson 32

And we turn back to Ephesians chapter 6 and in Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10 through 17, Paul now discusses putting on the full armor of God. Here is the section wherein he's reminding them that there's a real spiritual battle, a spiritual warfare, and they were very much aware of that warfare because they have been saved out of paganism. They've been saved from the realm in which these anti-God powers were ruling and reigning.

They were worshiping pagan deities. They were offering perhaps cultic sacrifices to these pagan deities. And there were certain behavior patterns of living that were related to these pagan expressions of their faith.

And now he wants them to remember that they need to resist those things in Christ Jesus. We'll look at this section verse by verse, but let me just say from the outset that the Christian life is not let go and let God. It is not.

The Christian life is God in Christ has acted. God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. He predestined us in Christ for adoption.

He redeemed us by the blood of Jesus, gave us forgiveness of sins. We heard the gospel, we received it, and he soothed us by the Spirit. He's resurrected us from the dead.

He's created us with Jews and Gentiles together into one new humanity. We have the kingdom of God given to us by faith in Christ, by the power of the Spirit. We live in the messianic age and we are exhorted to live a godly life.

And one way we live a godly life is, and one way we can have victory in the Christian life is, we proactively fight against the devil and his lies. We resist him. We stand against him.

We recognize that we can't simply be passive recipients of truth. We have to proactively apply that truth by reminding ourselves to put on the gospel. That's what he exhorts them to do here.

Put on the gospel, put on the new man to fight against the devil and his lies. So Paul says in verse 10 of chapter 6, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Let's pause for one moment here.

How are you strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might? Well, he tells us this in a moment explicitly by putting on the full armor of God. So in one sense, verse 10 gives you this command, be strong. And then verse 11 repeats the command by further clarifying it.

He's exhorting us basically to put on the gospel. But I just want to highlight the word be strong or strengthen yourselves in the Lord. It is true, isn't it, that the Lord takes the weak things of the world and shows that he's great.

Paul emphasizes this in 1 Corinthians. Not many mighty are called, not many noble are called, but God takes the ordinary things in life and makes them great. By making them great, I mean, he uses weak people to show how great he is.

Even Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 7 through 10, when he has this thorn in the flesh and he's asking the Lord to take this thorn away from him, the Lord says no three times because his grace is sufficient for him. And although Paul is weak, God is strong. But it's also true that the Lord wants us to be strong in the Lord.

Now, consistent with how Paul's used the term Lord or kurios most of the time in Ephesians, he's referring to Jesus. In the slave master conversation, he calls masters Lord, kurios, small l. But here he returns back to calling Jesus Lord, kurios, capital l. So be strong in the Lord, strengthen yourselves in the Lord and in the strength of his might. When Paul repeats things, remember, it's for emphasis.

Notice he mentions strength multiple times, strong in the Lord, strength of his strength. That's basically what he's saying. Be strong in the Lord and be strong in the strength of his strength.

In other words, be very strong in the Lord. And now he's going to tell you how to be strong in the Lord. In verse 11, put on the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

These are some encouraging words here. First of all, let's look at the imperative to put on the whole armor of God. In a moment, he gives us different aspects of this armor, and we'll talk about that armor more specifically in a moment.

But just know that he is saying put on the armor of God in a context where he is incarcerated, perhaps in Rome. He would have an understanding of what a Roman soldier looks like with his armor, even if he's not incarcerated. He's a Roman citizen.

He's been in Rome a lot. If his incarceration is not in Rome, he's been in Rome a lot or been in the Roman Empire a lot. To be able to know what a Roman soldier would look like.

And we know he went to Rome at the end of his ministry as a prisoner. But my point is that living in the Greco-Roman world, he's seeing what a Roman soldier looks like. My position is he's here in prison in Rome, so he has likely a firsthand look at this.

If he's chained to a Roman soldier or if they're watching him, he can see their armor. And he knows that this armor protects them. That's why he talks about the helmet and the shield and shoes and all this.

I mean, the Romans knew how to win wars because they had many things. But one thing they had was the proper armor. He says, put on the whole armor of God.

We'll talk about that in a moment, about what that is. But notice why he gives the command to put on the whole armor of God. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand.

In fact, if you look at chapter six, he says multiple things, multiple times. In chapter six, verse 10, he says, be strong in the Lord. In chapter six, verse 11, put on the full armor of God.

And then he says in chapter six, verse 11, so that you would withstand the devil. You go over to chapter six, verse 13, he says, take up the full armor of God. He's already said, put on the full armor of God in verse 11.

And then he says, verse 13, do that so that you would be able to stand or withstand. So he's repeating that again. And then in verse 16, he talks about taking up the breastplate of righteousness, taking up the full armor of God, a piece of that armor, at least.

So you have these multiple commands here. Urgency. Whenever, again, an author repeats something, it is urgent.

So put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand. So that you may be able to stand against, look at this, the schemes of the devil, the trickeries of the devil, the craftiness of the devil, that word for devil there is diabolos, slanderer, adversary. Remember, God in Christ has conquered all the anti-God powers.

That the devil is subject to God's sovereign power. Jesus reigns right now at God's right hand, at his right hand in heaven over all things in heaven and on the earth. And the devil is subject to his power.

All the anti-God powers are subject to his power. And yet the devil still has power and he's waging war against the kingdom of God and the people of God. This is why he exhorts us to be strong in the Lord because we must fight against the devil.

Jesus has won the battle against the devil and we have won the battle against the devil and his kingdom and all of his anti-God powers. And we must fight so that we can keep winning. In fact, we must fight because we have won.

We must battle because we have won. We've won the battle, but winning the battle doesn't mean we're relaxed and that there's no longer a fight. That means because the battle was won in Jesus, we must continue to proactively fight.

Why? Because the battle continues until Jesus returns. The devil's defeated, but he's still going to and fro on the earth, seeking him he may devour. God's giving him some power and authority over the realm of darkness.

So we must fight against him with, as we'll see in a moment, the gospel, resist him and his lies proactively. Say a few words about the devil here. He's a liar.

He's a slanderer, but he's crafty. In one sense, he's not wise because he doesn't fear the Lord. But in another sense, he is very smart.

And I do believe in a real devil, a personal devil, who is the ruler of demons. I think he's the ruler back in chapter two, to which Paul refers, that when we were dead in trespasses and sins, we were walking in these patterns of living that were consistent with the ruler of this age. That's the devil.

And we must be willing, ready to be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might to put on God's armor, verse 11, so that we may be able to stand. What does it mean to stand against? It means to resist his temptations, to resist his schemes, to resist his lies. I'll give you an example of what that looks like.

I want you to turn with me to Matthew chapter four, verse one. We all know this story. I think Jesus is acting out for us in a narrative what Paul means when he says, put on the full armor of God so that you can withstand the devil and his lies.

Jesus has just been baptized. He comes up out of the water. He was led by the spirit.

Verse one, after God declares he's the son of God and the spirit comes upon him, he was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Same word that Paul uses, diabolos, to be tempted by the slanderer, the slanderous one. That's sort of the idea.

Notice the emphasis here, tempted by the slanderous one. And so he fasted for 40 days, verse two, and 40 nights, and he was hungry. So he's weak physically.

And the tempter came and said to him, if you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. So in other words, the devil is crafty here. It's crafty.

The devil has a plan. Here's his plan. Ah, he's weak.

He's hungry. It's just been said that he's the son of God by God himself. And the spirit has confirmed that.

And John has preached that. And now the devil has crafted a plan by which to tempt Jesus to prove that that declaration is not true. But the temptation shows us, Jesus proves that it is true that he is the son of God.

But the devil's crafty. He's a schemer. He thinks and plots about the destruction of the Messiah.

And this is what he says. If you are the son of God, command these stones to become bread and eat them. Verse four, Jesus responded by quoting, quoting the Bible, citing passages from Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy chapter eight, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. What's Jesus doing in this moment? He's resisting the devil in his lies. Verse five, then the devil took him into the holy city and sent him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you and on their hands, they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

By the way, the devil misquotes scripture here. That psalm does not give a promise that if you test God, he's going to protect you. That psalm gives a promise he protects his people who trust in him.

But what is the devil? He's crafty. He knows how to use scripture to twist it, to make it sound what he wants it to say for his own devious purposes and plan. And notice when he addresses Jesus, it's not with these words.

God said you were the son of God, but do this. It is if you are, he's questioning the very thing that God has already said is true. He's questioning whether God's declaration about Jesus is true.

If you are God's son, then eat this food. If you are God's son, then throw yourself off of this temple and his angels will come and protect you because that's what the Bible says. And Jesus says, that's not what the Bible says.

The Bible says you should not put the Lord, your God to the test. Citing Deuteronomy 6, verse 16. He's crafty.

You see Paul's point. He has a plan. The devil has a plan.

He's crafty. He schemes. He has a wheel.

Verse 8, again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, all these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. See, that's the point of the temptation right there.

These really aren't three different temptation experiences. They're three different encounters. Yes, but they're saying the same thing.

When he tells Jesus, eat these stones after you turn them into bread, he wants Jesus to worship him and not trust God. When he tells Jesus, throw yourself off of this temple and God will protect you. He wants Jesus to worship him and not trust God.

And here it just becomes more clear what the devil has been trying to do from the very beginning. He's trying to persuade the son of God, the eternal son who took on human flesh, the one who's been baptized and the one about whom God says, this is my beloved son. And upon whom the spirit rests and to whom John has been pointing and about whom John has been preaching.

He's trying to convince this Jesus that God is wrong and that he is not who God said that he is. And he wants him to give his allegiance, his worship to the devil. If you will fall down and worship me, you can have all of these kingdoms.

And then Jesus said, be gone, Satan. And verse 10, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord, your God, citing again Deuteronomy chapter six, verse 13, you shall worship the Lord, your God, and him only shall you serve. So then the devil left him and behold, angels came and they began to minister to him.

So it's interesting in this narrative when Matthew is commenting on the devil, he uses the word Diabolos, Diabolos, Diabolos, the adversary, the adversary. And then when Jesus addresses the devil, Jesus calls him Satan. It's a different word.

It's a word that comes out of, you hear that word in Job when Satan goes before the Lord and tests Job or requests or lies to God and says he worships you for these reasons. And God allows the devil to do what he wants, but doesn't allow the devil to go beyond what God permits. And so God is controlling that temptation between Job and the devil.

God's controlling that. But it's interesting that Satan is the word used to talk about him going before the Lord. And then the word Satan is what's used here.

So this Satan, he's an age old liar, deceiver. The principal of evil spirits. The ruler of evil spirits.

The devil hates our guts. He wants to destroy us because he wanted to destroy the son of God. He wants to destroy the kingdom of God.

The devil is a real supernatural power. He's weaker than God because God is not weak. God has sovereign power over everything.

God is strong. The devil is weak, but the devil does have power, but it's less power than the Lord, but he has power nevertheless. And Jesus gives us an example, going back to Ephesians now, Jesus gives us an example of what it means to be strong in the Lord and his strength and of his might and to put on the full armor of God.

And he gives us an example of why we must put on the armor of God so that, verse 11, you may be able to stand against the devil, the schemes of the devil, against the devil and his lies. Verse 12. He's going to give us an elaboration upon the reason in verse 12, for we do not wrestle with flesh and blood.

Another way to think of the word wrestle, we do not struggle with flesh and blood. We do not fight against flesh and blood. This is not a military battle between human militaries.

This is not an earthly battle. This is a supernatural battle. It's a battle between God and the anti-God powers.

We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but here's our enemy against the rulers. Same language from chapter one, language that we saw in chapter two, Jesus is raised above all rulers, all authorities, all powers. In chapter two, the ruler of this age, similar language, the authority of this age, we wrestle against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of evil over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil.

Here it is again, in the heavenly places. Let's think about this. Again, he's saying put on the full armor of God, be strong in the Lord.

If you don't put on the armor of God, you are not being strong in the Lord. Put on the armor of God so that you can fight against the devil and win because our warfare is against all the anti-God powers. Christian, how in the world can you and I defeat all the anti-God powers if we're not strong in the Lord? Now, again, I'm going to remind you that we have victory already in Christ, that owes him our love.

Oh, victory in Jesus, my savior forever. He loved me, I forget the rest of the song, and purchased me through his redeeming blood. It's a victory that we have in Christ, already won, but it's a victory that enlists us to fight.

So let's go back to chapter one again and look at the victory that we already have. We're not commanded to fight a battle that we cannot win. We are commanded to fight in a battle that Christ has already won for us.

He says that God has displayed power to us, chapter one, in choosing us and electing us and saving us and giving us the spirit and the power that he displayed in us or toward us who believe according to the work of his might, verse 19. This is the same power, here it is, verse 20, that God worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, same word from Ephesians six, for above, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his full body, which is his body, the fullness of him who feels all in all.

Brothers and sisters, we have victory in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has already dethroned the principalities and powers of the air. He's already kicked Satan off of his throne.

He's already won the victorious battle. But we must be strong in the Lord. We must put on the full armor of God so that we can withstand the devil and his powers because we wrestle and fight against the devil until we die.

There is a real cosmic salvation that we have in Jesus and that cosmic salvation is expressed through us as members of the church as we fight against the devil with the supernatural powers of the gospel. We must proactively fight against these authorities. This is our battle.

Our battle is not fundamentally against our neighbor. When our neighbors mistreat us, when our coworkers mistreat us, when our friends mistreat us, when people in our churches mistreat us, they're doing that because they too, along with us, we are fighting a spiritual battle. There's an anti-God battle, but the only ones who are equipped to fight this battle and win are those of us who are in Christ.

But we must recognize the Christian life is warfare every day of our lives. Even when life is good, even when marriage is great, even when our kids are well-behaved, even when our churches are smooth, even when we love our careers, there's still a massive supernatural anti-God warfare taking place that Paul is saying we must be ready to engage in to win this battle because our battle is not fundamentally against human beings. It's against the devil and all the anti-God powers and all the anti-God structures that serve the devil and his purposes.

Like in the New Testament, the Roman Empire, which is an agent of the beast, John says, so therefore, verse 13, since your battle and my battle is against the devil and all anti-God powers, take up the whole armor of God. See verse 13, all he's doing is repeating what he said in verse 10 and 11. Be strong in the Lord.

Verse 11, put on the full armor of God. Verse 13, put on the full armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. Well, what's the evil day? The evil day is right now.

Ephesians chapter 5, verse 16, Paul says, look carefully, verse 15, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. We are living in the present evil age right now and Paul is saying, put on the armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. Every day is the evil day and every day of our lives we need to be ready to do battle against the devil, recognizing that the warfare never stops.

And again, the good news of the gospel for us is, in Jesus we have the victory, the spirit is with us even when we're sleeping and God protects us. But my point is, is that the devil doesn't stop working against us. So put on the full armor of God so that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.

And having done all, here it is again, to stand firm. And notice again, he repeats that command, verse 14, stand therefore. So he wants you to stand.

What does it mean to stand? Resist, do what Jesus does, resist. How do we resist? By putting on the full armor of God. Well, what is the full armor of God? Well, he's going to tell us, stand therefore having fastened the belt of truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by, there it is, the gospel of peace.

That's the full armor of God. It's the gospel. In my view, when he gives you these different aspects of the full armor of God, I don't know.

I don't know if he's emphasizing that each part of the armor represents something individually. I'm inclined to read it to mean that each armor of the gospel represents something collectively, and that something being the gospel mentioned in verse 15. One reason why I think that is because he mentions the word gospel here, and then he mentions the word of God down in verse 17.

So he says, take up the sword of the helmet of salvation, verse 17, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. So I'm saying, first, I think the armor of God refers to the gospel. That is the full armor of God.

And the reason why I think that is because, number one, he identifies the word of God later. So the gospel, the good news, but the gospel is the word of God. Of course, the Bible is the word of God as we use it, but the gospel is the word of God.

God announces this good news in Isaiah. This is what God has promised, that he's going to bring about these redemptive promises in Jesus Christ, and the kingdom of God is coming, and it's going to usher in the messianic age and the age of the spirit. But then also, I think this is on the right track because he has mentioned the gospel on numerous occasions throughout the letter thus far.

He talks about the gospel of our salvation in chapter one. He talks about the gospel as Jews and Gentiles in Christ are fellow participants in this heavenly city, in this new commonwealth that God's created in Christ by the spirit. So what Paul is commending us to do to withstand the devil and his lies is to put on the gospel of Jesus Christ, to put on the full armor of God.

In verse 16, he says, in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, which you can extinguish all the flaming swords of the evil one. The devil shoots us with schemes and lies, slanders, temptations, whispers, doubt in our ears. He knows the buttons to push.

He knows, just like he knew when Jesus was physically weak because he fasted and was hungry, he knows when we're tired and when sleep is little and our patience are few, he knows that and how to push our buttons. He knows if you are tempted to look at things you ought not to look at in the late hours of the night when no one's watching. But God, he knows if you're tempted to do that, he'll present those temptations to you.

He knows if your tongue is quick to gossip, he knows that and he'll create schemes and plans by which to present all of those opportunities in front of you. And he'll make you, as he did Adam and Eve, think those things are good to eat. So Paul says you must put on the gospel.

If you're putting on the gospel, what are you putting on? The fact that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, the fact that God chose you in Christ for the foundation of the world, the fact that you've been redeemed by the blood of Christ, the fact that you have adoption in Christ, the fact that you have the Spirit, the fact that you should walk in a manner worthy of your calling, you're putting on the fact that you have the supernatural ability, divine enablement to resist the devil and fight against him through prayer. You're reminding yourself that God's kingdom is more beautiful and lovely and attractive than anything the devil has to offer. And you remind yourself, if you put on the gospel, you remind yourself that you are part of the kingdom of God and that the devil has been triumphed over in Christ and that Christ is reigning right now at God's right hand.

As the victorious Messiah who has poured out his Spirit, who has sealed you, you're reminding yourself. This is what you remind yourself of. This is what you're putting on.

You're putting on all of the redemptive promises of God revealed in Christ. That's what you're putting on every day of your life. And you do that by a variety of means.

You read the Bible. You pray the scriptures for your life. You're involved in your local church.

You don't try to practice the Christian life by yourself because you can't. You sit under preaching. You have Christian community.

You create boundaries in your life. You meditate on the Word of God. And in the moment of temptation, when you find yourself wanting to give in to the devil and his lies, you speak the Word of God to him and you resist him and draw near to God and he'll flee from you like he did from Jesus.

You imitate Christ. That's how you put on the gospel. That's how you put on the full armor of God.

It is an absolute war every day. And you must fight because if you don't fight, you won't win. You have to fight for your marriages.

Fight to be a good parent. Fight for prayer. Fight for reading your Bible.

Fight for being patient in the power of the Spirit. Fight! So he says, put on the salvation, verse 17, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. I want to show you something here in terms of Paul's comments where he is drawing, once again, from Isaiah.

If you'll notice with me in Isaiah chapter 59, verse 17, the statement regarding in the context of 59, numerous statements regarding the Lord, verse 1 of 59, His hand is not short that it cannot save, or His ear dull that it cannot hear. This is a chapter that speaks about the Lord's ability to save, but also a chapter that talks about the iniquities of God's people, separating them from Him. But your iniquities, verse 2, have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear you.

For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters wickedness.

No one enters suit justly. No one goes to law honestly. They rely on empty pleas.

They speak lies. They conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. You get the sense here that the people of God, remember, they're in exile.

They're going into exile. As you make your way down, though, the Lord promises He's going to bring some hope, and He's going to bring deliverance. If you look at Isaiah chapter 59, verse 16, He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no one to intercede, that then His own arm, look at this, this is the Lord, His own arm brought Him salvation.

And His righteousness upheld Him. He put on His righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on His head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself in zeal as a cloak.

Now, if I'm reading this text the right way, this is describing the Lord doing this to Himself. He's the one who brings salvation. He's the one who has righteousness and brings righteousness.

So going back to the Ephesians passage, what is Paul inviting us to do? To put on the Lord's salvation, to put on the Lord's righteousness. Where is that found? In the gospel. See, the same gospel that saves us is the same gospel that sanctifies us.

Paul continues, I love this, sort of the spirit, verse 17, which is the word of God. Let's be practical here. The gospel is the word of God, of course.

But I want to apply this to just the Bible as a whole. It is so important for Christians to prioritize consistent Bible intake, reading the Bible, hearing the Bible. You want to sit under preaching in the context of the church.

And let me just say to you, local church, worship, involvement, what the Lord does in that moment through the preaching of the word is unlike anything else He does throughout the week when you intake the word. You can learn all sorts of things by listening to sermons on podcasts or listening to sermons on YouTube. But that is not the same thing that happens when God brings together the church to sit under preaching that is empowered by the spirit, because the church, as we've seen in Ephesians, both universally and locally, is the place where Jesus Christ is filling up the body with his power and sustaining it and holding it together.

And when Christians place themselves in a local assembly, they experience that power in unique ways. And when the word of God comes through the preacher to the people, there's something uniquely happening in those moments where the Lord is working supernaturally to give us divine energy to resist the devil and his lies. I will say that without the church, our ability to fight against the devil and his lies is hindered.

It's mentioned the church numerous times, and literally these saints went to church to hear the Bible. They didn't have YouTube. They didn't have podcasts.

They couldn't go to the local Christian bookstore and buy a study Bible. Bibles were not what they are now. There were some scrolls, and Paul's Bible was in his brain for the most part as he studied scripture formally, but not everybody studies scripture formally.

So when Paul shows up with these Gentiles and he plants churches, he's giving them what came from his brain and what came from God's supernatural spirit revealing to him. And he's been writing scripture along with the other apostles, writing scripture. And the Hebrew Bible is not as accessible to everybody as well.

Not everybody had a Hebrew Bible walking around. They were taught scripture, but not everybody had access to scripture. They literally went to synagogue to hear scripture.

They literally went to the church, gathered as the church to hear the word of God. We need the church to be committed to the word of God, but we also need as Christians to be committed to the church where the word of God is faithfully preached. If you want to have victory to stand against the devil and his lies, you need the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

And you need it in the church. You need to hear it preached and you need to read it for yourselves. One of the beautiful things about the Protestant Reformation is that they wanted to take the word of God to the people of God in their dialect, their vernacular.

So read the Bible for yourself as well and pray the Bible.