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The full armor of God and I have to admit that when I showed up this morning, I was bored with the with the the and I'm admitting this confessionally, okay? I was already bored with the sermon when I got here. And God showed up in a way that floored me and so, like a little kid in the swimming pool when daddy's just done some delightful toss, I'm saying, do it again because if not, I'm bored with this sermon already. The full armor of God and the comms check. So, if we're going to use military language, right?
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There's the full armor of God. It's like, oh yeah, be putting this on and y'all have heard the sermon as many, most of y'all have heard the sermon as many times as I have. Oh yeah, there's this and this and this and this. It's all armor. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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And we we can we can run past it so quickly that we don't even think about it anymore and so I don't want to do that. I want to do justice to the passage by giving it the time. I also want to extend it down to verse 20 that includes a part about prayer because if you don't, you know, if you don't have a connection to God, then the full armor of God really don't make a whole lot of sense. You're not in the you're not in the midst of this. I also, because I tend to be pretty pacifistic, I don't usually read military stuff into things.
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But this one, there's no doubt about what it says, and it's mostly defensive weapons. There's one offensive weapon in all of this. It's defensive armor and one offensive weapon. And that's not ours. That's not ours, right?
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So, here we go. One more thing. So, last week, I said it in both services and I said it with complete aplomb and I even stomped my foot because the young's literal Translation and I'm going to go back. I'm going to make, it's not a retraction of the sermon. It's a clarifying addendum to the sermon last week.
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Young's Literal Translation, I said when I got to verse 22, you know, verse 21 says, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ and then verse two, I said, Young's Literal says, and that's it, verse chapters five and six. When it gets to verse 22, I noticed this and it cracked me up. It says, the wives And I stomped my foot like that. Yeah. Connor even went with me.
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Yeah. Well, I I left from here and I thought, it's weird that he'd saved that because it's the same introduction. It's emphatic in all of them and sure enough, the husbands, the children, the servants, and the masters. It says that for all of em, just with the same emphasis. So, the point is, as we are submitted to one another out of reverence for Christ, we do so and each one of us should listen to our portion of that with some humility but it's an emphatic saying we are different, right?
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So, anyway, it's just to me, it cracked me up and I I couldn't sleep at night until I cleared that up. So, here we go. It's probably the thought I'm so emotional right now. I have not slept since last week. Finally, Tanya says to me as a pastor's wife, she gives good advice and she says, never ever say, finally or in conclusion, it gives people false hope.
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Don't do that. Just sneak up on em with the end and let it be over but Paul says finally, in verse 10, he's gonna go on down fourteen, fifteen more verses, whatever. He's going to finish out but we're only going as far as verse 20. So, next week, I'm planning on finishing Ephesians and there's a lot in there that I want to cover. Just in the in the closing paragraph.
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Finally, he says, now, this is immediately after that household code which I believe knowing the context that was written into, he was lifting up the oppressed ones and he was giving the ones who typically had been oppressors a word to say, hey, there's one lord, there's one body, one faith, one baptism, and y'all are all in it together and you should treat each other like brothers and sisters. So, he finishes that household code section and he says, finally, now, be strong in the Lord. You can't do this on your own. You can't do this on your own. So, be strong in the Lord and if you didn't get it that time, he's repetitive.
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He says, and in the strength of his might because if you think about who God is, God is almighty. He has all of the resources necessary for you to be able to walk a life of faith and do as he directs you. So, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. It's not your might or your power but by his power, his might, his there is in this section, there are a lot of references to power or strength. There are two different words but there's a interplay where it's strength, strength, power, power, power, strength, strength and so it is the the power to carry something out and then there's the dunamis power which is like TNT explosive power that is the power to get stuff done and there's a lot of verbiage in there but it starts off this section, this sermon.
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Finally, be strong in the Lord and then the strength of his might and be putting on the full armor of God. This is verse 11. He's going to have a little digression before he gets back to it again. In verse 13. But put on the full armor of God, be dressing yourselves, and it's yourselves, not yourself.
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So it's plural. And that makes a difference. If you're an American, typically, we are the most individualistic nation I mean, culture probably that has ever existed on earth. We're super individualist and when we see put on the full armor of God, let better yet, if we see put on the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. We usually read a you as an individual, you.
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It's not. That is a y'all. Y'all. Okay? Finally, y'all, be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might.
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Put on the full armor of God so that y'all will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. That's important. It's individual, yes, but it's collective too. So that matters. It's how we get along especially since the whole of Ephesians to this point has centered on the unity in the body of Christ.
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Put on the full armor of God so that you'll be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle, see, it's right there. You, y'all, our struggle is not against flesh and blood and I think that often times, individually, we think that, oh, that guy, I can't stand that guy. I hate that guy. That guy is just terrible.
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He's, why can't, how could you ever think what he thinks? And we get this individual feeling that I have an enemy and that enemy is all so wrong and it's awful. But this says, our struggle folks is not against flesh and blood. If we're being strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, God has, he is almighty and he has a plan for saving and we're part of that plan. So if we say our struggle is against those people over their external group of whoever they are, and it can go any direction.
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Right? If we think that those people over there are our enemy, we have missed the whole game. We don't deserve the salvation that has been offered to us. Can you agree with that? Yes.
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So, it's mercy. It's not getting a punishment that we do deserve and grace. It's getting something good that we don't deserve. If we are truly, if we truly believe that we do not deserve the salvation that we have, that we do not do not deserve the savior that we have. We won't get that we are just like they who don't yet know him, right?
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The only difference is we know him now. So, they're not our problem. They're not our issue. In fact, if we believe what God has said, we are now on a rescue mission to take ground the kingdom of darkness and bring people, flesh and blood into the kingdom of marvelous light. Now, I say that.
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Our struggle is not against flesh and blood but it's against the rulers and so, rulers can be earthly rulers. It can be but it's usually those things that are preeminent. We get our word archaeology from this. It starts with those in a temporal sense that are from the beginning, a starting point initial, what comes first, it's their chief, and we do have in this world, there are rulers. In fact, Paul has already mentioned them in Ephesians.
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We'll get to it. The prince of the power of the air. He'll mention rulers and then he goes on to say, against powers, Exousia is power. That's not like strength or power as far as we've discussed so far, but these powers are authority, conferred power, delegated empowerment operating in a designated jurisdiction. This is this morning.
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It's a weird it's a weird thing to say. This morning, I thought of because of this passage probably. I thought of Joe Parker. He was one of the missionaries that was in Mexico when we went down to Mexico when we first got there. And Joe, I have a million stories about Joe.
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He was hilarious but he used to wake his family up in the morning on Sunday morning with turning the stereo all the way up to eleven and all of the amplifiers on as loud as they could be in their rooms and then he turned on roundabout by yes, the progressive rock band and when it starts off with all of the finger picking and harmonics and stuff, his family would go and I did that to my family this morning. In honor of Joe, Pascal literally said, what in the world is going on? They told me to wake him up before I left this morning, so I did. One of the things that Joe said often was he said, Ray, the devil is God's devil. And if you think about that, you go, I'm in the world we're so used to hearing yin yang.
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There's equal evil and equal good and just, you know, try to be a part of the good in a cosmic sense that's sort of a sense of being, but that's not true. God is almighty and there is a spiritual realm that rebelled against him and it exist and those are the rulers and the powers that this passage is talking about. There are is an angelic realm and there's a demonic realm and I know if you come in from the outside and you go, I can't believe this yahoo believes that nonsense. But it is nevertheless what the Bible presents as true, what the passage presents as true, and here we are. We're not struggling against flesh and blood.
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Flesh and blood, people are the objective to share the salvation with people who don't yet know him in all humility. This thing's not working, Jeff. So, usually, there we go. So, earlier in Ephesians, Paul has said this is his grace that he was given. He says, to me, the very least of all the saints, he grew up Jewish.
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He knew the way. He fought against it until Jesus met him on that Damascus Road and he says, this grace was given to me to preach to the Gentiles. Gentiles, there's anybody who's not Jews, Jewish. If you read a lot of older translations, it says, Heathens, to the ones that are the outsiders, to preach to the outsiders the unfathomable riches of Christ and to enlighten people as to what the plan of the mystery is which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things so that the multifaceted wisdom God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities. This is the same folks.
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To the spiritual realm that rebelled, we, the church, should show the goodness of God. The the the multifaceted wisdom of God and this is in accordance with eternal purpose which he carried out in Christ Jesus, our lord. So, our struggle not against flesh and blood but against the rulers and the powers and against the world forces of this darkness. Now, world forces is a great Greek word, cosmokratoras. Cosmokratoras.
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If you come from an Orthodox background or if you've ever been in an orthodox church, you'll see Pantokrator. Pantokrator is the almighty, the almighty one, the almighty force, and that's God. And then Kosmokrateras. Cosmos is the word for universe or world and rataras ruler and the world ruler properly, this is referring to is Satan. It's influences the lives of worldly people through this.
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It's only used one time in the New Testament. It's used in Greek literature otherwise but it's only used once in the New Testament in Ephesians six twelve right here. So, if you think about that, our struggle is not against through flesh and blood but by the grace of God, we have the ability to share with them. Contrary to the rulers of this world, contrary to the powers of this world, contrary to the spiritual forces of witnesses to wickedness. It does not take a lot to convince someone to do that which is wrong.
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There's always temptation that comes around. It is a normal thing in this world. I had an occasion yesterday where somebody called about something that had happened. It was unfortunate. It was a kid and I thought of 50 ways that I was a kid that I had done things that were just kind of mischievous and underhanded and I shouldn't have done them and I figured that out pretty quickly.
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But you don't have to convince people into doing something that's wrong. You don't. Against the spiritual forces of wickedness. In the heavenly places. Now, it keeps on coming up in the heavenlies or in the heavenly places.
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Ephesians is very concerned with the spiritual realm. When it says that the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places and it's the church's job to show the multifaceted wisdom of God that though we did not deserve it, he still loves in such a way and that he is good. Now, their original rebellion where they pushed away from him, it says, we show them that he is actually good after all. In heavenly places. May I read this whole slide to you?
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Thank you, Connor. And you were dead in your offenses and sins. Paul keeps on bringing us back to the point that you as a person did not know God at one time. Now, there are plenty of people who don't know him now and they're not acting like they know him. Your job, since you have been moved, is to act like you know him, to to trust in him.
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So, as you were dead in your offenses and sins in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, that's Satan, of the spirit that's now still working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too all previously lived. We lived there in the lust of our flesh. We lived there indulge in the desires of our flesh and of our mind, and we were by nature children of wrath just as the rest. So, it puts us on equal ground.
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You get that. But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he has loved us and he still loves them. Okay? He still loves them. I want him.
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I can't make this point strong enough. It's not team God and team devil and we're against them. We're team God and like a get match of Red Rover. We wanna bring them to our side and hold on to them. But God, being rich in mercy because his great love of which he loved us even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ.
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It's by grace that you've been saved and he raised us up with him and he seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So that in the ages to come, he might show the boundless riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace, it's you have been saved. Through faith, it's not of yourselves. It's a gift of God.
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Do you see where merit doesn't have any place in here at all? Grace is what it's about. It's the gift of God. Not as a result of your work so that no one may boast for we are indeed his workmanship and we were created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. He wants for us to walk in the works that he has for us and he has gifted us in different ways to be able to keep on holding the ground that he has and gaining ground by bringing other people into the kingdom of God.
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So in the heavenly places, that said in heavenly places, this is amazing to me that it's the multifaceted wisdom of God gets to be known by the rulers because just of the humility of accepting the goodness of God. Therefore, here's the proper full armor of God. Take up, take it on, be putting it on the full armor of God so that you'll be able to resist on the evil day. So, it says, so that you'll be able to to resist Satan's evil schemes before so that you'll be able to resist on that evil day so that you will be able which what's the evil day? Well, he says throughout Ephesians, make the most of your time because the days themselves are evil.
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All of em. All of them are. It's just the way that it is. We are in a world that is in a way controlled by the spiritual realm. By Satan.
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So that you'll be able to resist on that evil day and haven't done everything to stand firm. There's, do y'all read Watchman Knee? Do you know who Watchman Knee is? That his commentary on Ephesians is called sit with Jesus in the heavenlies. Walk worthy and stand firm.
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Sit, walk, stand is the name of his commentary. I just think it's cool. It's a great book by the way too. So, having done everything to stand firm. Very next sentence, stand firm then.
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That's important. He repeats it twice. The the victory has already been won in Christ. It is not a yin yang where there are equal parts, good and bad. God is almighty and you standing firm as holding the ground that Christ has already won.
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So stand firm having belted your waist with truth. I put on a belt every morning when I leave. I don't go anywhere without one these days more now than ever. Right? It's just the way that it is.
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Belt belted your waist with truth. What is it that truth defends against? You may think we're living in the information age. We're past that point. We're living in the misinformation age or the disinformation age.
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And so the truth stands against misinformation, disinformation, lies, outright lies. And it stands against everything that is actual error. And so before you leave the hump before you get up and leave the house in the morning, you belt your waist with the truth. We know that Jesus said, I'm the way, I'm the truth, and I'm the life. We know that when he was in the garden and prayed actually for the unity that I mentioned last week, when he prayed that they may be one, all of these believers throughout all the ages, may you make them unified just like we're one and he said, sanctify them by your truth.
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Your word is truth. So, we do have the Bible and that is the truth and it's the truth that can be misunderstood. Don't get me wrong. For ages, people have misunderstood it but we in humility with the spirit surrendered before it. It is possible to see it and see the truth for what it is.
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I had a conversation with an aunt from back home this week and she said, I read something, Ray, that has just floored me. Jesus said over and over and over again, he said, I could do nothing if it were not for the father telling me, right? So, the comms check that we're getting to at the end, the prayer part of it. He says, he could do nothing. He does what his father shows him to do and that in itself is the truth.
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So, Jesus walked it out by the submitting to the spirit of God, submitting to the will of the father and he walked it out. Here he is, The truth. Stand firm therefore, having belted your ways with the truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate of righteousness, it protects the heart. Obviously, that sounds that's what where this sermon usually goes.
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Is this is the cover? It's your main defensive weapon but but get past the the breastplate part and say, what is the breastplate of righteousness mean? So, you're either going to be walking in truth or you're to be walking in error. This says, walk in truth. You've got that on your side.
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Righteousness, it is possible to walk in victory. We sang a song this morning and it says, my sins, they are many, his mercy is more and in the course of this study of Ephesians, I've said many times that Paul calls them right out of the bat. He calls them holy ones. He calls them saints. The definition of a sinner saved by grace is saint and so if you walk around, you think, oh, I'm just a sinner saved by grace.
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The tendency, all my sins, they're many. Yeah, they were many but he has called you his own and he's made you holy and he's given you the truth and he's given you the victory and you can walk in it. This says, put it on like a breastplate that you're going to walk today in victory. There's so many times in the 12 steps, 12 step program and you hear people talking and they say, by the grace of God today, I didn't take a drink. By the grace of God today, I'm walking in victory.
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Right? And so that's a good way to put that is to go, Lord, when you wake up in the morning, I want to do your will. Show me your way and I'll walk in it. And then when you walk forward, walking in righteousness is not being a goody two shoes. It's not pretending you're better than somebody else.
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It's understanding where you actually stand and you've been given a choice to be able to walk, submitted to the spirit by the will of the father, following after Jesus, and you can walk in victory or walk in righteousness. And show the world because the truth is, a righteous life is always attractive. A truly righteous life is always attractive. Now, there'll be those who say, goody two shoes like I just did or there'll be those who say, I don't believe all that stuff. That's just a front.
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But the truth is, you can only show consistent application over time. If you walk in righteousness because of God, that is always going to be attractive. That's a winning thing. There's no theological argument against a changed life. Right?
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So walk in righteousness that protects your heart. And having strapped on your feet the preparation of the gospel of peace. It is better. In this world, you will have trouble. Yes, that's true but Jesus says, take heart.
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I've overcome the world. The gospel, the good news of Christ and his salvation is amazing and the fact that we get to carry that forward is amazing. Do you realize church that your plan a, and I'm not talking about just the one seated in this building today, the capital c church is the plan a and there's no plan b. Jesus just left a few guys to tell the story and those guys told the story and because they told the story, you heard the story. And because you tell the story, other people hear the story.
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Having strapped on your feet, the preparation of the gospel of peace. This obviously is a reference also to Isaiah 52. How delightful here we are in the mountains. On the mountains are the feet, the beautiful feet of the one who brings good news, who announces peace, who brings good news and happiness, who announces salvation, that it is possible to be saved and says to God's people, Zion, your God reigns. So, in addition to all of that or maybe a better translation is in everything, be taking up or take up the full armor of God it says up top and then it says it again, taking up the shield of faith.
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So faith is I don't have to guess what, you know, I said, what is truth standard defense of, well, misinformation, disinformation, lies. Yeah, I don't have to guess on this one. The shield of faith, it says, with which you'll be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Everything, if you try to undertake to do something good for God, you will hit resistance, I promise and there will be the the temptation will be there to draw back or to doubt or to fear or to not see that happening But the shield of faith is what will protect you from all the flaming arrows of the evil one. I have been there where I felt like there was darts coming all the time and there were doubts coming and it was a really, really hard time and I'd say each step you take to be more spiritually involved in what's going on, there will be a temptation and there will be fiery darts that come out to you.
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That's what happened, flaming arrows. Hebrews says that faith is the certainty of things hoped for. It's a proof of things not yet seen and then it starts for by it, the people of old gained approval and it goes from Abraham all the way down through the list of a lot of heroes of the of the faith in Hebrews 11. This shield of faith, it is not just your subjective little bit of belief which is a gift from God that you have and you have the ability to exercise it. It is also the actual faithfulness of almighty God.
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So, your subjective faith placed in the faithfulness of almighty God will extinguish the flame and arrows of the evil one. Now, it says, take the helmet of salvation Excuse me. Your mind. Your mind is the place that is protected by your helmet. Right?
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James Montgomery Boyce is one of the commentators I like to read. And he said the first time that he preached, he preached when he was 13 years old and he did so in front of the church with his football equipment. He was playing must have been middle school football and he had, you know, a helmet and he had his shoulder pads and he had his pads. He had his belt, all the stuff and when he got to the helmet of salvation, he said he had a sticky note on the back of it or a note on the back of it and he was reading the sermon. He thought, how horrible must that sermon have been?
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But he said, but he wouldn't have gone into a football game without his helmet. He'd been hit hard enough to know that. You put the helmet of salvation on. There's a song that we often sing. It's blessed assurance.
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You can know that you are saved. You can. And the way to know that is to trust in the way that God has made. He presents Jesus who knows no sin, has not sinned at all, to be willingly walking out in submission to the spirit, the father God's will and he does that throughout a whole life and has a perfect record and then he voluntarily and sacrificially gives that over. Accepting that that was for you makes the difference and you can know that you're saved and if the devil's flaming arrows take your shield of faith down and one of those flaming arrows is you're not saved, that will drive you insane.
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It'll take you to a place of going, I don't know anything anymore. You can have blessed assurance. Take the helmet of salvation, guard your mind with the fact that you've trusted in Almighty God and he wins. You the victory is already his. So finally, be strong in the Lord.
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This, take the helmet of salvation. It's not on you. If it were just on you, does this make sense to you? If it were just on you, some days we're better Christians than we are other days. Some days we feel like we're going back.
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That's part of the sanctification process. But if you will turn back and go, alright, be strong in the Lord. I trust him. His work on the cross was sufficient. Be trusting in the strength of his might.
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He's almighty. I'm not. But all I have to be is humbled before him and submitted to that still small voice which we'll talk about in a minute. And the sword of the spirit. This is our only offensive weapon and recognize that the sword of the spirit, it says, which is the word of God, that is not the word of Ray.
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That is not the word of Scott. That is not our word. It is not our opinion. The word of God is the only thing that wins people over. He says that by his spirit, he'll illuminate.
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We prayed for it in the song, Illumine Me. He uses the word and it should be something that we are we are applying to our lives in such a way that it naturally comes out in the way we walk and in the way we use our words but the word of God is the sword of the spirit. That's where the battle is won. All of the rest of them are defensive. Why?
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Because we are not battling against flesh and blood. We don't want to cause harm to the other side. What we want is by the way we live our lives and the way we use our words and by the spirit of God working, we want to see people coming into the kingdom of God. So, with every prayer and with every request, this is a command. Pray at all times in the spirit even when you don't know what to pray for, be praying.
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God, may your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven? Would you, Lord, superintend and show me the way to go? Be praying at all times in the spirit and with this in view, be alert. Be awake.
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Don't sleep on this. No sleeping on this. That's the Gen Z way. Don't sleep on it. Be alert with all perseverance and every request for all of the saints and be praying in my behalf.
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We're almost finished here. And be praying in my behalf, Paul says, that speech may be given to me in the opening of my mouth To make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. Paul said that was the grace that was given him was to speak it forth and the grace that was given to the church is to be able to declare it to the heavenlies. Be praying. Have your calms checked, ready.
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When you're waking, be speaking to God and during the day, be listening to what God is saying. When you're reading his word, be listening to what he's saying. Pray always in my behalf that speech may be given me to the open of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. For which, I'm an ambassador in chains. He's already mentioned that in chapter four.
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Hey, I'm a prisoner of the Lord. I think he said it in chapter one two but what he's urging them to do here throughout chapter four all the way to the end of chapter six, he says, I'm urging you, y'all be walking in a manner that's worthy of the calling with which you were called and do so with all humility. Can I just say I see a lot of proud statements about what I believe? It does not matter if you're proud and obnoxious. That doesn't help anybody.
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That's contrary. That's struggling against flesh and blood. I urge you to walk in a manner that's worthy of the calling which you've been called with all humility. Does that sound like Jesus? Yes.
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With all gentleness. Does that sound like Jesus? Yes. With patience. Bearing with one another in love and being diligent to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.
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For which I'm an ambassador in chains that in proclaiming this gospel, I may speak it boldly just like I ought to speak. That's what Paul is asking for them to pray for him. That's what I'm asking you to pray for me and that's what I'm praying for y'all. That you'd be able to see what a blessing it is to know and to be a part of this kingdom that you don't deserve and to be able to share it with other people who also don't deserve it with boldness. I think that that is it.
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To enlighten all people as to what the plan of the mystery is which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things. The church is supposed to be the ones who are witnessing the goodness of God, the multifaceted wisdom of God to the very heavenly realm and we do that by submitting like Jesus did. So, we have the communion prepared here, the Lord's supper. We're going to celebrate today and I'm going to ask if I can get the ushers to come forward and Judy, will you play something? Okay.
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I might, do you have something you want me to sing? Okay. I'll come over there. Lord God almighty, as we consider this, lord, as we consider all that this full armor, you're trying to protect our hearts and our minds do so in Christ Jesus in the strength of his might and so lord, we're thankful for that and right now, in humility, we come saying, we cannot do this and we do not deserve it but lord, we get to be a part of it and so lord, I pray that you'd use this time that you'd bring us closer to you and to one another, that you'd bring us into absolute agreement with the spirit of God and be willing and empowered to do whatever it is you have for us. In Jesus name, lord, I ask your blessing on this little representation of the body of Christ.
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This this bread, lord. So, would you do that? As it passes through anyone who's ever put their faith in Christ, This is an open table. We're not closed communion. It's very open.
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So, lord, I pray that anyone who would partake would would feel you that closely to them that they would internalize, lord, what you have done, how you walked it out, the example that you lived, and the precious blood that was shed later in the cup. So, Lord God almighty, I pray that you would bless this in a special way. For those who don't partake, lord, I pray that you would be speaking through your still small voice and go ahead of these other participants lord that are here that you'd that you'd bring them into a full knowledge of who you are in Jesus name amen
