Wrestling With
Another World – Part 6
Ephesians 6
Sept 1, 2013 PM
Pastor Craig Ledbetter
I.
Introduction (Ephesians
6:10-18)
A.
How can any selfish,
self-condemned sinner ever expect to resist the devil, except by a superior
power - a superior force?
B.
With the Whole Armour of God!
1.
This armour enables the Christian
to STAND (6:10-13), and not fall when under attack from any enemy - spiritual,
or physical! Most “Christians” fall like rain under pressure and attack. We need
so desperately to learn to stand!
2.
To fight Satan we must put on
"the whole armour of God". Not
just a few bits and pieces, but the whole package, every day! Why? Because Satan
looks for the weak spots in our life to hit at.
a.
Every soldier is issued weapons
and defensive gear
1)
They are tools to get the war won
2)
Every fisherman has tools to
catch fish, every carpenter has tools to build homes, and every Christian has
tools to defeat the devil!
b.
But all the training in the world
wont do any good in battle if the soldier doesn’t PUT ON THE ARMOUR - doesn’t
carry his weapons into the fight
1)
God is calling every Christian
here to faithfully prepare for each day, and each battle by choosing to “put on”
every piece of God’s armour!
2)
Don’t be like the idiot soldier
that went to the loo, and was taken prisoner simply because he forgot to carry
his weapon!
3)
Satan traps more Christians
simply because:
a)
They never learn their weapon -
how it works, how to use it
b)
They let someone else destroy
their faith in their weapons
c)
They forget to use their weapons,
and try fighting against tanks with sticks, rocks, and mud! You wont survive!
c.
Preparation is found in personal
discipline - reading and studying your Bible, being in church, praying,
exercising your faith - growing stronger!
d.
A Christian who is not ready, and
prepared to live for God each day, is destined to wind up spiritually shot-up,
and wounded and hurt! And probably even dead. There is NO glory in that!
C.
There are six pieces of armour
the Christian needs to be wearing every day so to stand:
1.
The under-garment of God’s truth
- wraps around us like a wide belt
2.
The breastplate of God’s
righteousness
3.
The boots of the Gospel
4.
The shield and buckler of faith
5.
The helmet of personal salvation
(forgiveness)
6.
The Bible (sword) of the spirit -
the word of God
D.
We looked at the first three last
week!
1.
The Weapon of Truth (Eph 6:14a). All
our armour rests upon this
2.
The Breastplate of Righteousness
(Ephesians 6:14b)
3.
Gospel Shoes!
(Ephesians 6:15)
II.
Message – The Spiritual
Weapons of a Christian…
A.
The Shield of Faith (Ephesians 6:16)
1.
Next, our challenge is to take
up, and carry a shield - One that will deflect any missile (fiery dart) directed
at you!
2.
Note the words, “above all” – as
if, most importantly!
a.
What did Paul think was the most
important piece of equipment for the Christian warrior?
b.
Right… the shield!
He tells us above all right at
the start.
3.
How a Shield Works
a.
The shield is held in front of a
soldier and gives us a place of safety in the midst of a battle.
b.
It is like carrying a DOOR around
c.
The Roman shield was as large as
a door. It was made of wood, the surface of which was charred with a torch and
then covered with thick leather. A soldier could hide his whole body behind this
shield. The flying missile would hit and the liquid spread out, but the charred
wood of the shield would not catch fire so the soldier was safe beneath his
shield.
d.
It was a great piece of armour!
e.
It deflected arrows, darts,
stones, and even hot oil that would constantly be raining down upon the
soldiers!
f.
When these large shields were
joined together, they formed a wall behind which a body of troops
could hide themselves from the rain of the enemy's missiles.
g.
For the Christian, Faith is what
gives us refuge against Satan's "fiery darts"
h.
For the Romans the shield was not
just a defensive weapon, it was also an offensive weapon.
The metal bulge in the centre, was designed to hit the enemy at impact,
put him off balance, and it allowed the soldier to follow up with his sword, to
kill the opponent.
4.
Faith is just like a shield
a.
It allows us to put an
immediate end to ALL of Satan’s dart attacks.
I’ll explain this more in a few minutes!
b.
Our faith has two
uses:
1)
To deflect Satan’s advances
2)
And to hit back at the devil hard
when he is attacking us
c.
According to the Bible,
faith alone is the only way to resist the attacks of our enemy, the
devil (1 Pet 5:8,9)!
1)
Not by will-power, or through
self-help meetings – not in self confidence or pumping ourselves up
2)
But by absolute and confident
faith in an almighty God who gives us the victory based upon our child-like
reliance upon HIM (1 John 5:4,5)!
3)
Most people have a mis-placed
type of faith: in the government, in their religion, in themselves, in angels,
in fairy-god-mothers
4)
But the only faith that works is
the one once delivered to us (Jude 3) found in the Bible! Not in some catechism,
or some temple somewhere
5.
What is Faith?
a.
Faith is often defined as a
religious term; religious people are called “people of faith”.
b.
There are all kinds of ‘faiths’
(Buddhist, Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Evolutionist, Humanist,
Atheist)!
c.
But true faith is:
1)
Believing God (Acts 27:25; Rom
4:20,21; 2Tim 1:12)
2)
Believing God instead of myself
and others!
3)
Complete
reliance upon the God of the Bible, as expressed in the Bible!
4)
Your personal confidence in God
and the promises of His Word.
5)
Knowing that God knows what He is
doing, and being willing to let Him do the leading, and you do the following!
6)
Faith is trusting GOD enough to
obey Him no matter the odds, knowing He will always give the victory (1st
John 5:4; 4:4)!
d.
There is no reason for a
Christian to think that they have blind faith; God has provided us
with reasoned faith… faith based upon reason, facts and logic.
1)
The Prophecies.
a)
The Bible is filled with
prophetic evidence regarding the Bible, and Jesus Christ, for example Isaiah
52:13-53:12, describes Jesus and his ministry 700-years before his birth.
b)
The Bible foretells the exact
time of Jesus death 539-years before His birth in the 70 Weeks of Daniel, Daniel
9:24-27. Why did God provide
prophetic evidence for the person of Jesus?
Why did Jesus do the miracles?
To provide evidence of his identity, that we might have faith in Him.
2)
The Histories
3)
The Universal affect – makes
better people, when obeyed!
6.
How Does Faith Work as a Shield?
a.
It Rests behind God
as our Shield (Gen 15:1; Ps 5:12; 119:114; Prov 30:5) – if you will trust Him
1)
Faith actually has no power, but
the allowing for the power of God to act!
2)
When we use our faith, it shields
us against doubts and discouragement, and against EVERYTHING the devil throws
against you!
3)
Why? Because when you are
believing God, you are NOT trusting your feelings anymore, nor even your
experiences, but rather, you are fully trusting simply whatever God promises.
b.
Makes HIM our place of safety –
our defence! When He is our Defence (Psalm 62:6) we will never have to move
backwards!
1)
Believing God permits us to
manoeuvre on the battlefield instead of hiding in the fortress. Satan wants to
make a bunch of “chickens” out of Christians so that they don’t do any damage to
the devil’s work on the battlefield: ie, few strong Christians taking a stand in
the workplace; in govt; in education!
c.
It shields us even when it
doesn’t seem to be there
1)
David fought Goliath, and won by
FAITH (1Sam 17:45) without a visible shield to protect him like Goliath had
7.
How it Quenches ALL the fiery
darts hurled at us!
a.
What are Fiery darts?
1)
Burning arrows, missiles, fast,
pointed projectiles that usually killed its victim by burning them!
2)
The Roman "fiery darts" were made
from a hollow reed (something like bamboo). One end was stoppered, then the reed
was filled with a flammable liquid like alcohol. A loosely fitting stopper
holding a wick was slipped into the other end of the tube and lit. It was then
shot like an arrow, not at a bundle of straw or at a fortress, but at the
soldier himself. Since the missile had it's own fuel source and the wick was
protected by the tube, the missile kept burning until it hit something. When it
hit a soldier, the wick popped out, the liquid spilled over the soldier's armour
and ignited, cooking him in his own armour.
3)
These missiles were nothing
special – nothing high tech. They were fired during daylight hours, so you could
hardly see them coming, but when they struck, the effects were devastating.
b.
Satan’s Fiery darts
1)
Burning temptations
2)
Painful words by people
3)
Even demonic thoughts - evil
thoughts, demonic ideas.
a)
The devil knows very well that
our most important stronghold is the mind.
Once he can attack the mind, and short-circuit the mind, he's got us.
Because then we are at the mercy of our emotions.
It's our mind that keeps control of our emotions.
So we have to guard our mind; the fiery darts.
b)
He sends something our way - a
thought, a doubt, an unholy idea, an event, a sound, a casual comment by a
friend - which seems very innocent at first, but when it strikes, it spreads its
destruction throughout our spiritual man engulfing us in flames.
4)
Most of our battle is in the
thought life. Most of our conflict
is not in our ordinary outward life; but in our thought life.
That's where the devil attacks us, with all kinds of evil suggestions,
doubts, blasphemous thoughts.
a)
Lust (James 1:13-15) These darts (sinful desires) are meant not just to
hurt you, but to destroy you - they have delayed action timers!
b)
Love of Money (1 Tim 6:10) - possessions, success, the world
c)
The condemnation of the Law - proving that you are not good enough –
condemnation, personal guilt, etc…
d)
Lies - people get into the habit of wanting to believe lies instead of
the truth (about themselves; about God; about sin) - misunderstandings
e)
Loss – discouragement – seems to be a regular dart
f)
Confusion - doubt
g)
Depression
– is
frustration and anger that is worn out
h)
So many different kinds of these
darts can come at you, and so many can all come at you at once! You need an
effective shield that works!
5)
Christians who struggle with
depression can only think thoughts which see negative images of the present or
the future. Some of these thought patterns are from family influences, life
experiences and other psychological factors. However, researchers admit that
many of these thoughts seem to have no obvious origin.
6)
Well, I can tell you that origin,
and it's a very hot place! Our enemy himself will try to plant thoughts in our
minds that will cause us pain, and if possible, lead us to forsake God.
7)
What is our defence? The
scripture tells us that it is the shield of faith.
c.
How does this work in a practice?
1)
Examples
a)
For example lets take Mary
Christian and her co-worker. Mary is at work, and her co-worker says, “Mary do
you really believe the Bible?” “How
can you believe such a thing?” The
co-worker really might be asking a sincere in her question, or she could be
shooting a fiery dart at Mary. If
Mary Christian has never learned how to use her shield of faith, the dart might
hit Mary, who might ask herself, yeah, “why do I believe the Bible?”, “how do I
know the Bible is true”?
b)
Now God allows us to experience
warfare, because through it our faith can grow.
c)
The co-worker may be very sincere
in her question, creating a door for Mary to advance the gospel.
As Mary learns why the Bible is true, and why she believes Jesus is the
Son of God, she can walk over to her co-worker, open the Bible (the sword of the
Spirit) and show her. Now the fiery
dart shot at Mary, becomes the cause of the Gospel is advanced, as Mary explains
to her co-worker who Jesus is, and why he is the Son of God.
d)
Another example, would be Joe
Christian walking past a pub and the thought pops in his head… “Man could I use
a drink!” “No one would know.” “I only need ONE drink” If Joe did not have a
shield against such darts, he will give in every time! He HAS to believe that he
is living a better way, and that His Lord would want him to stay clear of drink
and get home!
2)
Satan has literally hundreds of
fiery darts he can fire at us, in each case; we should learn how to take his
attacks and train to respond. Ask
yourself, what fiery darts give you the most problems?
d.
To “quench” is to “put out the
fire” - the sting – the hurt – the desired effect
1)
Satan intends for his darts to
penetrate deep into your heart, mind, life, and to explode, doing major damage!
2)
Most hearts in this room are
scarred with spiritual holes that are burned-out! That is only because we
neglected to use our armour! Shame on us!
e.
The shield of faith actually
“absorbs” the attacking dart, and prevents the dart from doing what Satan
intended it to do.
1)
Like seeing porno material in
front of you - faith (the belief that God is right and good and better than the
pleasures of sin for a season) resists the attack, and engages the enemy in
prayer! You can’t pray if your eyes are open, and exploring the temptation! You
have to deflect the attack, and get strength to push forward!
2)
Like hearing something said
against you - faith resists the attack, and engages the real enemy in prayer,
resting in Christ, and pressing forward - Satan senses you are headed at a vital
target and seeks to divert your focus!
3)
Like trying to operate your
business right, and the attacks start coming at your efforts (bad health,
financial loss, depression) - faith rests in the course taken as being right,
and engages the enemy head-on in prayer, and obedience to God’s word!
f.
When you hold up that shield,
there is no missile of Satan that can harm your soul.
g.
Be careful not to leave your
faith, your fresh confidence in your Saviour and Lord, back at home, or at
church - it must be with you at all times!
1)
Most Christians neglect faith,
and leave life up to FATE! That is what the world does!
2)
Fate accepts whatever happens,
and struggles just to survive - "my lot," or "bad luck."
3)
Faith presses through current
attacks and seeks to conquer higher ground by trusting in God's leadership
8.
How to Get Faith to work!
So, How Do You Put on the Shield of Faith and Carry it Throughout the
Day?
a.
Have fresh faith – get
some fresh faith every morning from reading and believing what you read in the
Bible (Rom 10:17)
1)
A weak shield is because of weak
faith. The only way to have strong faith is by studying, and learning the word
of God
2)
Have faith in God (Mark 11:2)
3)
Know what you believe – not what
your heart tells you, or what man tells you, but what this Bible says – clear
and firm!
4)
It is something that we believe
in spite of what we see
b.
Use Your Faith (2Cor 5:7)
– against everything that would strike against you, and attempt to turn you
back!
1)
It only is powerful when used!
All of these weapons have to be used – especially FAITH!
2)
At every chance, use your FAITH!
Instead of just reacting to attacks by the same old ways, like:
a)
Frustration
b)
Anger
c)
Quitting
3)
Look at every situation with the
eye of faith – don’t get caught up in the here and now. See beyond the battle,
to the finish line!
4)
Have faith in God – trust him
implicitly!
a)
Nothing wavering - no haphazard
attempts to live for Jesus
b)
No turning back - the Lord knows
your heart
c)
Lots of practice - doesn’t just
come “naturally” - must get the hang of it
d)
Hey! It will strengthen your
faith when you use it and use it!
c.
Enjoy your faith – carry
what you believe with you and HOLD IT HIGH!
1)
Enjoy its LONG-TERM benefits!
2)
They are eternal (Hebrews
11:32-40)
d.
Don’t forget to Link your
faith – with others! At Church, prayer meeting, discipleship… let other
people know that you are praying with them about things in their life, and let
them know what they can pray about for YOU!