Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Maybe seated. If you turn with
me in your bibles to Ephesians chapter six,
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or passage for this evening is Ephesians
chapter six, on the ending words
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of this letter, probably a well
known passage beginning in verse ten, listen,
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for this is the word of the
Lord. Finally, be strong in
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the Lord and in the strength of
his might. Put on the whole armor
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of God that you may be able
to stand against the schemes of the devil,
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for we do not wrestle against flesh
and blood, but against the rulers,
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against the authorities, against the cosmic
powers over this present darkness, against
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the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly places. Therefore, take up the
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whole armor of God that you may
be able to withstand in the evil day
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and, having done all to stand
firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on
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the belt of truth and having put
on the breastplate of righteousness and, as
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shoes for your feet, having put
on the readiness given by the gospel of
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peace. In all circumstances, take
up the shield of faith with which you
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can extinguish all the flaming darts of
the evil one, and take the helmet
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of salvation and the sword of the
spirit, which is the word of God,
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praying at all times in the spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
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To that end, keep alert with
all perseverance, making supplication for all the
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Saints and also for me, that
words may be given to me, and
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opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the
mystery of the Gospel for which I am
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an ambassador, in chains, that
I may declare it boldly as I ought
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to speak. That's why the reading
of God's word, may He bless it
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to us. Why is it that
bad or poor theology seems to stick in
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our brains with such greater ease and
with greater longevity than then good theology?
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Whenever I read this famous and beloved
passage, I can't get a certain idea
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out of my mind. It must
have been twenty years ago that I first
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saw this, but I was I
was browsing through a Christian book catalog.
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I saw that you can order an
armor of God action play set for your
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children. They could dress up as
a Roman soldier with plastic shield armor,
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Right Sword Helmet, and then I
us act out what Paul's describing here.
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I don't get me wrong, it's
not as bad as the Noah's Ark play
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sets that you can buy and if
you've bought maybe in armor of God costume.
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I'm not here to make you feel
bad for your poor financial decisions.
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No, for me it demonstrates something, and that is the dangers maybe of
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a good illustration. Through Paul,
our Lord gives an amazing, a compelling
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illustration in our passage. But you
see what an illustration is too good.
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We have a problem where we remember
simply the illustration. We focus on the
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illustration rather than on the deeper truth
that is being taught. So this evening
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I want to get at some of
the what is really going on in this
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passage. As we turn to Ephesian
six, we hear some of Apostle Paul's
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final words to the Church at Ephesus, and we should realize that the apostle
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Paul wrote this letter to be read
all at once. And with that in
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mind, if Hesians is a rather
short letter, we could read it aloud
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together. It would take us about
thirty minutes, and the fact that it's
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a short letter does not make it
insignificant. Rather, the shortness, the
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brevity of this letter increases its impact. If we were to read this letter
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at all at once. We would
see that it packs a punch. He
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writes quickly here, but he's also
writes deeply and he writes with urgency and
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with with purpose, and that urgency
has seen most clearly and how he concludes
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this letter. You see, it's
in this urgent conclusion that we get a
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sense of why the Apostle Paul is
even writing to this church. Throughout this
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letter, Paul tells us why he's
writing. He has much to say about
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our Christian identity in the Lord.
In fact, I can chapter one.
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His opening prayer for the church is
having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that
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you may know what is the hope
to which he has called you. He
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tells us about the nature of the
new creation. He's pressing us to know
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the hope to which we've been called, reminding us then of the spiritual blessings
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that we've been given by Christ and
later in chapter four, calling us to
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walk in a manner worthy of our
heavenly calling. He then addresses husbands and
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wives, parents and children, Masters
and servants, constantly pointing us to the
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heavenly identity of the church. That's
certainly true, and what we just read
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from Ephesians six as well, for
here we're directed to the significance of why
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the Paul is writing this letter.
Here we are shown why he's writing with
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such urgency. Why are we supposed
to know our identity in the Lord?
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Why should we know who we are
as the church? Is it to sustain
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some idle curiosity? It's just merely
an intellectual pursuit. No, knowledge of
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your identity in Christ is necessary because
we are in danger, he says,
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be strong in the Lord and in
the strength of his might. And Paul's
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here calling us to be strong,
and not just any kind of strength,
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he's calling us to be strong in
divine strength, be strong in the Lord,
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in the strength of his might.
For you see why such heavenly strength
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would be required. Because such is
the danger that we are in, as
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he says, but on the whole
armor of God, that you may be
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able to stand against the schemes of
the devil. So, then, the
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reason that we are to know our
identity, the reason we should know our
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hope, the reason we should walk
in a manner according to our heavenly calling
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as because we are at war.
He's using the imagery, then, of
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a battle, and this battle imagery
only increases as the description unfolds. For
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we do not wrestle against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against
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the authorities, against cosmic powers over
this present darkness, against the spiritual forces
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of evil in the heavenly places.
Therefore, take up the whole armor of
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God that you may be able to
withstand in the evil day and, having
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done all, to stand firm.
And so Paul is calling you, that
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church, to see that we are
under attack. We have an enemy.
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The enemy is at the gates,
and Paul is not only calling us to
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prepare for battle, but to see
that the battle has already begun. You
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See, the urgency we hear in
Paul's words is real, for the enemy
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that Paul is describing is not flesh
and blood like us. You can't see
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him, and that's not some strange
comfort, thinking what a relief wouldn't want
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to see Satan. Paul says.
He's not flesh and blood like us,
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but that's what makes this enemy worse
than any foe we could imagine. It
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means he's more deadly than any human
enemy. Means the enemy is much more
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powerful than we are. Knows who
our battle is against. Rulers, authorities,
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cosmic powers over this present darkness,
against the spiritual armies of wickedness from
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heavenly realms. This bizarre imagery is
telling us the wet that we are enormously
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outmatched for this battle. Satan,
our great enemy, is described in scripture
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as a great dragon and he has
a fearful army of demons. We are
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but humans made of dust, and
we're facing an army that is not of
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this world, as this dragon,
who leads this army desires to devour more
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than our body. He devas out
desires your soul. He would desire to
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lead you to believe false doctrines,
he would desire to lead you to curse
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God and die. And he is
not a flesh and blood enemy. Therefore,
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the cost of losing this battle is
not measured in flesh and blood.
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If it's a spiritual battle, then
spiritual death and eternal death is on the
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line. And so questions that arise
from this idea. Doesn't Satan know that
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God is sovereign? Isn't God more
powerful than Satan? Doesn't Satan know that
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God will win? Well, sure
her, he does know, though he
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will be consumed in the effort he
will do whatever he can to bruise the
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heel of the son of God.
For, you see, his hatred for
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Christ, his hatred for Christ's church, is a more powerful motive than anything
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else. He doesn't care if he
loses. It's his hatred for God that
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keeps him fighting, not some hope
of victory. He hates God absolutely,
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and that means this is a pure
evil we are dealing with here. So
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do you since Paul's urgency? He
warns us in Chapter Five that the days
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are evil. Look carefully at how
you walk, not as unwise but as
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wise making the best use of the
time, because the days are evil.
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In chapter five or sixteen, now
Paul is calling us to take up our
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armor that we might be able to
stand in the evil day. The enemy
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is already on the attack. He's
already firing shots in that great battle.
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The days are already evil and they
will continue to be evil up until that
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final day. It will be no
peace treaties until that final day. Satan
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is a roaring lion seeking to devour. That is who he is and he
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will not stop until the Lord brings
him to an utter end. Do you
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see, then, that this battle
Paul is describing for us is impossible.
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You cannot win against an enemy like
this. You cannot win. And so
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what advice does Paul give? What
does Paul say here? Be Strong in
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the Lord, in the strength of
his might, as Paul shows you a
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battle in which you are completely outmatched. He also comforts you that in the
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Lord, and only in the Lord, you have the strength to stand against
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Satan. For, you see,
only the Lord's strength is sufficient for this
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battle, not yours. You cannot
fight this. Only in the Lord will
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you overcome. Only in the power
of the resurrected Christ will you survive this
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battle. And Paul has already spoken
of this victory, all the way back
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in chapter one. He describes the
greatness of God's strength and God's power in
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Ephesians one, verse nineteen. According
to the working of his great might that
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he worked in Christ, when he
raised him from the dead and seated him
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in his right hand in the heavenly
places, far above all rule and authority
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and power and dominion, and above
every name that is named, not only
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in this age but also in the
one to come, and he put all
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things under his feet and gave him
as head over all things, to the
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church, which is his body,
the fullness of him who fills all in
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all. So there's a reason we
can be strong in the Lord. To
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be strong in the Lord is to
stand firm, then, in Christ pree
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see, for us this battle is
impossible, but for Christ the battle's already
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been won. Paul tells us.
He he's already far above all rule and
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authority, Power Dominion, above every
name that is named. And if the
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urgency remains right, we're still being
attacked, we're still being fired upon.
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And so Paul tells us what it
means to be strong in the Lord,
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and here's where he uses this incredible
imagery describing the whole armor of God.
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Stand therefore, having fastened on the
belt of truth, having put on the
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breastplate of righteousness and, as shoes
for your feet, having put on the
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readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the
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shield of faith, with which you
can extinguish all the flaming darts of the
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evil one, and take the helmet
of salvation, the sword of the spirit,
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which is the word of God,
praying at all times in the spirit,
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with all prayer and supplication all the
Times, the way I heard this
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described to me the way you'll find
in catalogs, is that, as Paul
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was a prisoner and since he was
in prison when he wrote this, he
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was probably looking at a Roman soldier
wearing armor as he wrote this description of
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the armor of God, as if
Paul were just inventing this imagery from the
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world he observed around him, saying
your arms kind of like that guy over
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there. But I want you to
know that's not Paul's immediate context here.
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Rather, scripture points us in a
different direction. Paul's point is not to
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say, look at these human soldiers
that and what they're wearing, and isn't
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our spiritual armor lot like their's?
Rather, he's drawing this language from scripture
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itself, for if we look to
the scriptures, we see that the armor
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of God is the armor that God
himself wears when he, the divine warrior,
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steps onto the battlefield on behalf of
his people. Listen to the language
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of Isaiah. Forty two, verse
thirteen. The Lord goes out like a
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mighty man, like a man of
war. He stirs up his zeal,
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he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his foes.
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And Its speaking of this divine warrior, Isaiah says, and Isaiah fifty
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nine, verse Seventeen, he put
on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet
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of salvation on his head. He
put on garments of vengeance for clothing and
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wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak
according to their deeds. So he will
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repay wrath to his adversaries, repayment
to his enemies, to the coast lance
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he will render repayment. And in
Isaih Eleven, Verse Five, Righteousness shall
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be the belt of his waste,
faithfulness the belts of his loins. Think
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about this imagery that Paul is using, then we should see that, for
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this battle in which we find ourselves, the language that Paul is using is
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causing us to see that God himself
has already stepped onto the battlefield on your
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behalf, and by being called to
put on his armor, if the armor
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of God. After all, we're
being called to identify with him. The
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man of war has entered this battle
on behalf of his people, and so
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we're called to identify with him by
faith. In putting on his armor,
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we're putting our faith and our trust
in him, and putting on his armor.
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We're calling upon him to save,
to deliver. Don't you see?
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It's his righteousness that we need,
it's his truth that overcomes the lies of
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the enemy, it's his salvation which
guards our thoughts, it's his peace that's
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declared by the Gospel. Earlier in
this Epistle, Paul calls us to put
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off the old man with its filthy
rags of sin and guilt. In Chapter
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Four, Verse Twenty Two. Put
off your old self, which belongs to
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your former manner of life and is
corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be
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renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self,
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created after the likeness of God,
in True Righteousness and holiness. Don't
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you see that in putting on the
new man, we are putting on Christ,
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and we are covered in his armor
from our head to our toes.
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We are completely covered. Even our
feet are covered with the reconciliation of peace,
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Paul says, for Christ himself is
the Prince of peace and, as
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Isaiah reminds us in Isaiah fifty two, how beautiful upon the mountains are the
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feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good
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news of happiness, who publishes salvation? Who Says to Zion, your God
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reigns? Likewise, what do we
find God declaring about this shield? In
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Genesis Fifteen, it's God who says, Fear Not Abram, I am your
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shield. Your reward shall be very
great. And in Second Samuel Twenty two,
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he said the Lord is my rock
and my fortress and my deliverer,
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my God, my rock and whom
I take refuge, my shield, the
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Horn of my salvation, my stronghold
and my refuge, my savior, you
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saved me from violence, the shield
of faith. And is that shield that
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comes by faith. For you see, faith is so very important to this
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battle. It's by faith that we
are united to our divine warrior. Therefore,
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it's by faith that we extinguish the
flaming darts of the enemy. Without
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faith, those darts would take you
out. You put on the whole armor
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of God. You put on the
Lord by faith, and you put on
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the Lord's Strength, the Lord's Righteousness, his truth, his salvation. You
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put it all on by faith alone, for if your confidence is found in
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anyone or in anything else, you
will not stand. The only way to
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be found standing at the end of
this evil day is if you're standing by
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faith in the Lord and the power
of his might. And so did you
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notice what the one weapon in this
battle is? We've seen many defensive armor
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being described. What's the one offensive
weapon we're given? It's the sword of
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the word of God. This sword
of the Lord also finds its own imagery
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in the Old Testament, Isaiah twenty
one, or sorry, and Isaiah Twenty
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seven, verse one. In that
day, the Lord, with his hard
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and great and strong sword, will
punish Leviath in the fleeing serpent, Leviathan,
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the twisting serpent. He will slay
the dragon that is in the sea.
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And so Satan's end is sure,
for in that Evil Day the Lord
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will utterly slay the Dragon and by
means of Christ coming into the world,
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through his death and through his resurrection, he's already struck Satan that fatal wound.
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And so that in the book of
revelation, when the son of man
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is shown with a sharp, two
edged sword, where is it described as
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being in his mouth, as the
word of God. So we're called to
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take up this sword. It means
we're called to take up Christ for even
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Christ, while he was on earth, locked in deadly battle with Satan in
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the wilderness. What was his weapon? That was the word of God.
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When he was being attacked by the
fiery darts and temptations of Satan, he
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took up the word of God,
he stood upon that word and was victorious.
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The only offensive weapon we're given is
the word of God. And if
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we're depressed by that, if we
think it looks too weak, too ordinary
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here, not strong enough, I
remember what Hebrews for tells us the word
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of God is living, an active
sharper than any two edged sword, piercing
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to the division of Soul, of
spirit, of joints and of marrow,
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discerning the thoughts and intentions of the
heart. And so as we read this
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description of God's armor that we are
called to stand firm and that we are
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called to be protected by, we
see another layer of imagery being used as
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well, for it wasn't just the
warriors, it wasn't just the soldiers that
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wore something like this armor in the
Old Testament. Not only do we have
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this description of divine and heavenly armor, excess, Twenty eight also tells us
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about the priestly garments that would be
worn in the temple and the Tabernacle Excess
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Twenty eight, verse four. These
are the garments that they shall make.
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A breast peace and ethod, a
robe, a code of Chequer work,
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a turban and a sash. They
shall make holy garments for Erin, your
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brother and his sons to serve me
as priests. So Aaron shall bear the
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names of the sons of Israel in
the breastpiece of judgment on his heart when
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he goes into the holy place to
bring them to regular remembrance before the Lord.
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This piece of armor in the Old
Testament is also worn by a priest,
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one commissioned by God to intercede.
It's the armored then, of the
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high priest who bore the name of
names of God's people on himself as he
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goes in to minister before the Lord. He's the one identified with God's people.
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And so only as you are identified
with the true high priest, only
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as you were found in him,
are you able to stand before the enemies
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of this present evil age. For
our mighty warrior God, you see,
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is also our faithful high priest,
and as a priest, he's already dealt
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the enemy a fatal wound and even
now he represents our cause before God's throne
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in heaven, for he knows our
weaknesses, he knows our battle. He
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faithfully intercedes for his people so that
we might continue to overcome. He will
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never let us slip out of his
hands, because he has covered you with
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himself, his own righteousness, his
own salvation. He is your refuge,
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your protection, your defense. He
is your mighty fortress and you are united
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to him. And isn't that why
we pray then? Because we know we
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are helpless, because we know we
have no power, we pray. We
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pray not because our prayers are so
powerful, but we pray because he is
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powerful. Praying itself will not save
you. God will save you, which
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is why we pray to him.
As as Christ is the fulfillment of these
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warrior passages, he is the high
priest, then, who declares peace to
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us, his people, as we're
called to put on the armor of God.
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In Christ, we are already more
than conquerors, and in Him Satan
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cannot destroy you, as Paul reminds
us in Romans Eight. What shall we
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say of these things? If God
is for us, who can be against
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us? He who did not spare
his own son, but gave him up
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for us all. How will he
not also, with him, graciously give
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us all things? Who shall bring
any charge against God's elect it is God
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who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ? Jesus, is the one
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who died, more than that,
who is raised, who is at the
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right hand of God, who indeed
is interceding for us? WHO shall separate
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us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation or distress, persecution or famine,
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or nakedness, or danger or sword, as Paul describes the comfort that
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we have? He describes terrible trials. How can that be if we have
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the armor of God protecting US and
defending us? As what Paul describes her
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sound like victory as it is written. For Your Sake, we are being
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killed all the day long. We
are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
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Is that victory, Paul goes on? In all these things, we are
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more than conquerors through him who loved
us. For I am sure that neither
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death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present nor
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things to come, nor powers,
nor height nor depth, nor anything else
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in all creation, will be able
to separate us from the love of God.
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In Christ Jesus, Our Lord.
Isn't it fascinating that the apostle who
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wrote about standing firm in the Lord
is doing so in prison, suffering the
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trials, suffering the persecution of this
world, talking about God's protection. God
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has his shield, God has his
strength and his defender. Well, at
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the same time suffering, don't you
see? It's this armor of God that
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allows you to suffer as Christ did. You're free to suffer as he suffered,
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knowing that he is your true protection. Nothing that this world can throw
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at you, even the most devastating
of circumstances, will undo you, because
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you have a warrior priest who is
now protecting, interceding for you, and
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he will present you unharmed, perfect, spotless before the father, the cardless
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of what this world can do to
you. Amen. Let's pray.
