Preached in Markham Baptist Church, November 27, 2005

BECOME WHAT YOU ARE!  PART 9b:
WALKING IN VICTORY OVER SATAN

This morning we continue our study of the book of Ephesians and in particular the spiritual battle that we find ourselves in. You will remember last week I gave you a history lesson of where the devil comes from and what he is like. And I began the sermon warning you of two extremes – the extreme of denying his existence and the extreme of crediting all the evil in this world to the devil. 

Well, as we continue our study, I want to give you another warning – and it is this, when speaking of spiritual warfare there is a danger of falling into an attitude of extreme somberness and strictness. Everything for this person is dark, the devil is lurking behind every bush, all entertainment is to be shunned and life is seen as very serious indeed. And such a person forgets that the Christian life is a celebration! Jesus came to bring not darkness but light, not dullness but life. We must remember that the fruit of the spirit is joy. We have a singing faith that is characterized by beauty, joy, laughter, creativity, imagination, light, grace, love, hope and life. It is characterized by all that is good in life. We should be a rejoicing people.

The angels themselves we read in Luke 15:7 rejoice when one sinner repents – if the angels are rejoicing - angels, who have never experienced God’s grace or God’s transforming power, because they have no need – if they rejoice, shouldn’t we rejoice who HAVE tasted and experienced God’s grace and transforming power? Yes! 

Spiritual warfare is a serious topic, but let’s not forget to celebrate and rejoice in the victory that Christ has won for us.

Having said that, let me suggest to you that some of you may have been brought into the faith with a false perception. Some of you may have come into the Christian faith with the wrong idea about what you signed up for. When you became a Christian you may have thought that you were signing up for a pleasure cruise on a luxury liner. You may have been told that this luxury liner would solve all your problems, answer every difficulty and meet all your felt needs. So you pulled on your blue bermuda shorts, your matching black socks and sandals, buttoned up your green Hawaiian shirt and headed off the to the dock expecting to see there a large white ship with the name Sea Princess painted on the side, with five restaurants, three swimming pools, and massage therapists named Heidi and Sven. 

But I want to make you aware that as you go down to the dock to board the Christian life ship, you will not find there a luxury liner with five restaurants, three pools, and massage therapists – instead what you’ll find is a large gray ship with numbers painted on the side, and with guns mounted at the ready. The Christian life is not a luxury liner - it is a battle ship. 

To be sure, faith in Christ brings joy and life and there is peace in the midst of life’s difficulties and Christ is generous and does meet our needs but we are called to be part of spiritual battle, and as Christians we should expect that we will have difficulty and we will face Satanic attack – the one we follow was crucified, after all! He told us to expect trouble as His followers (John 15:18-20; 16:33). 

We are called to be part of a spiritual battle and this world is not a cruise ship where we are to indulge and fritter away our time on numberless and meaningless entertainments – it is not a cruise ship but a battle ship where we are called to engage the enemy in spiritual warfare. 

Last week we studied who the enemy is, where he came from and some of his characteristics. This morning I want us to think of how we are to fight this battle and we begin at verse 10 of chapter six. 

“Finally,” Paul says, “here’s the last thing I want to say to you as I close off this letter.”

“Finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” 

Here’s the first thing you need to know about spiritual warfare. You are a weakling. You cannot beat Satan in your own power – he is a superior being. The only way to beat Satan is to be strong in the Lord. What does that mean? It means to be so dependent on God, so trusting in God, so given over to God that He is able to fight the battle through us, in His strength and His power. 

Well how can we be strong in the Lord?

Verse 11 - “Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes”. 

We become strong in the Lord as we put on the full armour of God. And we may ask, what’s wrong with my armour? I mean, I’m a pretty charming guy. Surely I could take a stand against the devil’s schemes. Or if my charm doesn’t work, what about my good looks and quick wit? What about my sense of humour and sense of fairness and justice? Surely that would put the devil to flight? No. 

And it’s as if Paul anticipates the question and says at verse 12: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood.” (If it was, your quick wit and good looks and charm would undoubtedly do the trick!) But no, “our struggle is not against flesh and blood it is against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” 

Oh, you mean that we are fighting a spiritual battle! I get it - that means I must have spiritual armour!

Now it may be that verse 12 is referring to a hierarchy of evil here - beginning at rulers, moving to authorities, and then powers of this dark world and then the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. It’s not clear what these refer to exactly. What is clear is that there is another world, that is just as real as this world in which there is a battle and we are called to join it. As a result we need spiritual armour to fight it. 

Now understand that when we think of this battle, we sometimes imagine little gargoyle-type demons that sit on our shoulder and we must fight. But the truth is that demons and Satan do not manifest themselves physically. 

It is true, Satan did appear as a serpent to Eve, but beyond that we have no idea what Satan looks like physically. So lets get rid of this silly idea of Satan with horns and hoofs and his demons looking like gargoyles. We are fighting a spiritual battle against spiritual beings. 

To be sure, this spiritual battle will often manifest itself in the physical world through hunger and disease, injustice, persecution, prejudice, immorality and the like. I don’t want you to think that we are only fighting this battle when we are winning souls for Christ. No, we fight this battle when we feed the hungry, seek to correct injustice, stand against prejudice, and stand against persecution. The spiritual battle will often manifest itself in the physical realm but it remains, even though those are physical evils we can see and identify, we need spiritual armour for this is a spiritual battle we are involved in. We need spiritual armour to feed the hungry, we need spiritual armour in order to fight injustice, just as surely we need spiritual armour to fight temptation, and the like. 

Our strength is not strong enough; our wit is not sharp enough; our charm is not charming enough; our intellect is not smart enough to wrestle, to outwit, out-charm, or outsmart the devil. It is only as we weaker beings depend in the greatest being that we are able to defeat the greater being for God’s greater glory.

So there is a spiritual armour available to us that enables us to take our stand in this spiritual battle against the devil’s schemes.  So in verse 13, Paul repeats the phrase from verse 11 – “put on the full armour of God.” If you want to be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power – put on the full armour of God. What is this armour? 

Paul now lays out six pieces of armour that must be worn in order to stand firm in victory. He has an interesting use of the verb, in how he lays out these six pieces of armour. The first three are introduced with the verb “to be.” The last three are introduced with the verb “to take.” 

The first three mean that you wear them all the time - never take them off. The second three - “to take” - means it is located near by. You don’t have them all the time, but they are located close enough to you that you can pick them up quickly if you need it. 

The first three you never leave home without, the last three you keep close by in case you need them. All six, all you need to stand firm in the victory that you already possess in Jesus Christ. I will only be able to examine the first three this morning. 

The first thing he says is stand firm with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. (verse 14) Truth means that there is an absolute standard by which reality is measured. We live in a day when very few people believe in truth, and if they do, they don’t think it can be known. We live in a day of evangelical guesswork. We live in a day when some Christians don’t know where truth is, what truth is or whether truth is. 

And Paul says if you are going to stand firm, then you must have the belt of truth buckled around your waist. Do you know what a belt does for a man? It’s an important piece of our attire, it keeps up our pants up so we don’t trip and our shirt in. 

Well, a belt had a very similar use for a Roman soldier. A Roman soldier always wore a tunic, an outer garment that served as his primary clothing. It was made of cloth and it ordinarily it hung down over most of the soldier’s body. But during battle this tunic would get in the way – it would restrict the movement of the legs – so a soldier would tuck it up into his belt.  So his belt was an important piece in the armour because it allowed the soldier to move quickly and easily - it kept him from being tripped up. 

Do you see why this piece of armour is important for us? Scripture says that Satan is a deceiver (Revelation 12:9) And if you are going to stand against his deceptions you have to know the truth. If you want to be a Christian who isn’t tripped up by Satan’s temptations, if you want to be a Christian who isn’t stumbling over Satan’s lies, then you need to be rooted in the truth. 

You need to know that God has spoken and He has not stuttered. You need to know that there are two answers to every question - God’s answer and everybody else’s and everybody else is wrong. That may shock some of you. We don’t like to say that some people are wrong  - we would rather say that everyone is right and what we have in the Bible is just another opinion. But how debilitating and how wrong that is and once you believe that, you are easy prey for the evil one. What we have in our hands is truth. 

We have a thick standard by which reality is measured and it is God’s Word. Psalm 19 reads “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statues of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. By them is your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward.” (Psalm 19:7-11) 

If you go to England and see one of those classic looking British gentlemen walking along the street – you know the one with the umbrella, and the bowler hat and the three piece suit - you will often see a little chain hanging in front of him that is attached to his watch in a little pocket.

And very often you will see this gentleman stop, pull out his watch and look at the time. But every now and then you will see him stop, pull out his watch, look up and then look down. Look up and then look down. And then adjust his little time piece and put it back in his vest. Whenever you see a British gentleman look up and then look down at his watch. He is checking his time against “Big Ben” – the big clock tower located in the Houses of Parliament in London, England. And whenever his time and Big Ben’s time don’t agree, he doesn’t go over to Big Ben and try to get it to adjust - he adjusts his watch to Big Ben. 

Because he believes that Big Ben has the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. 

Be sure to adjust your life to Big Ben. Don’t ask God to adjust himself to you. He is the unadjustable one. It means that we believe in truth. We are not trying to be popular, we are trying to be truthful. If we are going to stand firm against the deceptions of the devil we must put on the belt of truth.  Read it, trust it, act on it, it the word of the living God in whom there is no error. 

Paul continues - if we are going to stand firm we need the breastplate of righteousness in place. Now when you became a Christian you were made righteous. That means that you were put into a right relationship with God by being made morally pure. Jesus Christ cleansed you from sin through His sacrifice on the cross, and as a result you were declared as righteous. We did not earn it - it is a gift from God through faith in Christ. It is who we are. 

So what are we to do? Are we to rest and sit back in the lazy boy of faith? No. We are to become what we are. We have been made righteous - morally pure – now that God has done the work, we are able to live like it. And this is what Paul is referring to – put on the breastplate of pure living. So we are encouraged in 2 Peter 1:5, “… Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.”

Live a life that pleases God, in obedience to God. It is the righteous life of the saints, not the perfect life, but the righteous life, the life that pursues doing what is right. Pleasing God, honouring God, obeying God, being in His presence that we are to put on. 

Why? Because we need to wipe out the conditions where demons fester. Like swampy water that draws mosquitoes, so it is that an unrighteous life draws demonic activity. This is why Christians in the previous generation would not be found in bars, they would not go to dances, they would not play cards – because it was understood that there are certain places and activities that make us vulnerable to temptation. 

I’m not suggesting that we go back to those days where Christianity was a long list of things that we don’t do. But I do believe that each one of us need to ask ourselves are we placing ourselves in situations, in places where our purity is being compromised, where we are allowing the devil a foothold on our lives.

Perhaps you know the story of King David and Bathsheba. One night David couldn’t sleep, so he got up but apparently he forgot to put on his breastplate of righteousness, because we read in 2 Samuel11:1-4 that it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. From the roof he saw a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful to behold. And instead of walking away he said, “Hubba-hubba, bring her to me!” They ended up having a child, and David had the husband killed – what a mess. 

And the question we need to ask is what was David doing on the roof top? I wonder if he knew that Bathsheba would be taking a bath at that time? What a strange coincidence. There is the possibility that he placed himself in temptation’s way. And even if was a coincidence, why didn’t he walk away? That would have been the end of it – instead he gave the devil a foothold. 

Satan could not force David and he cannot force you as a believer to think about something at length or to act on every wrong thought. You have the power to turn your eyes away, to walk away, to refuse to listen, to turn your attention to something else, to refuse to go to those places which will bring a high risk of sin. You have the power to say no to a thought from the devil – you have been made righteous through Christ, so live like it. 

Then verse 15 – start off with belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, and then have your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 

He is saying dig in. The Roman soldier’s shoes were fitted with bits of metal or nails to give him greater traction as he walked over those slippery places and enabled him to stand firm against the enemy. 

Dig in with the gospel that gives you peace. He is not talking of peace with God, your status with God, he is talking about your peace from God. There is a peace that we Christians possess that you need to put on your feet. Because there are all sorts of situations that can be used to take the feet right out from under you. It can be death, it can be sickness, it can a loss of material comfort, it can be persecution, it can be your children, or something that happens to your children – all those things threaten to knock you off your feet. 

But if you have your feet shod with the peace of God – that you know that absolutely nothing can separate you from the love of God, that you know in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, you know that greater is He who is you than him who is in the world, you know that underneath are His everlasting arms, you know that He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to His power that is at work with us – I don’t want to be brash but we could almost say – “Bring it on!” 

For surely we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed. (2 Corinthians 4:7-9)

But on the gospel of peace - it doesn’t mean that there won’t be hard times, trying times, difficult times, but it does mean that God’s peace will overrule those times. 

Do you know that fish never get upset when it rains? Fish never say, “It’s getting real wet out here.” Whenever it rains, fish know that no matter how much turbulence is on the outside, it can only penetrate 25 feet below sea level, so they just go down 26 feet - they just go deeper. 

So whenever you meet turbulence in your life, you go deeper where the waters are calmer where Christ is. 

Now that’s all the time we have for today, but just notice that we are to put on the whole armour of God – you can’t just have your feet fitted with the gospel of peace if you haven’t got on your breastplate of righteousness – if you are not sure that you are right before God – you won’t have any peace in your life. 

And you cannot just put on the breastplate of righteousness without the belt of absolute truth – how will you know what the right standard is, without the standard that is given to us by God. 

You’ve got to put on the whole thing and then you’ll be able to take your stand against the devil’s schemes, and after you have done everything, to stand.

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - November 2005

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