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Today we begin a new sermon series.
We are calling it Suit Up: Tools for Waging Spiritual Warfare.
Our text this morning is Ephesians 6:10-17.
The apostle Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus clarifying doctrinal matters and then sharing application of those doctrines in the latter chapters.
In chapter five and the beginning of chapter six, Paul is writing about Living out the Christian life and how that applies to family relationships.
Then at the end of his letter, he speaks of spiritual warfare.
First, Paul says to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
A Christian’s strength does not come from himself, but from Christ in him.
We are incapable of standing against our enemy in our strength alone.
If we do, we lose every time.
If we could stand on our own strength, we would not need Christ.
No man has ever gone toe to toe with the devil and won except one: Jesus.
Jesus alone stood against the devil and won.
Jesus alone paid the penalty of our sin, was perfectly obedient to the will of the father, made atonement for us through his sacrifice on the cross, and emerged victorious when he walked out of his tomb alive!
Be strong in his strength and his might.
The same power that conquered the grave lives in every believer.
Paul then calls the church to put on the full armor of God.
It is well known that Paul is writing this letter from a place of imprisonment in Rome.
Now, this is more of a house arrest than a dark and dirty jail cell, but the condition that matters here is likely the same.
Paul was waiting for his audience with Caesar as we read at the end of the book of Acts.
He stayed in his own rented quarters and visitors were free to come and go.
He would have been under constant guard by the Romans and it would involve Paul being chained to one of them.
So as Paul is writing this letter, he is chained to a Roman guard and it is commonly believed that the guard’s uniform provided inspiration for the armor of God we read here in these verses.
We are called to put on the full armor of God because we are at war.
The truth is the war has been raging since Genesis 3 when mankind fell into temptation to rebel against God.
Sin entered the world, and death through sin, and God’s plan for redemption began to unfold.
A war has been raging in the unseen realm for millennia.
The day you and I said yes to Jesus and placed our faith in the gospel, we joined the army.
You and I are soldiers who as salt and light are called to stand against the forces of darkness while looking for new recruits.
Put on the full armor of God.
For what purpose?
so we can stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
You and I, whether we realize it or not, are standing on a battlefield.
Our enemy is the devil and he is a crafty one.
Verse 12 further tells us that our enemy is not the people around us who do not believe.
Our enemy is the devil himself, who rules through worldly systems, worldly governments, and forces of darkness to shroud humanity from the truth.
Notice all the forces we are up against are in the heavenly places, not in the physical realm.
The spiritual war that is raging manifests itself in the physical space, but it is not the physical world we wage war against.
Our enemy is not our neighbor, a friend, family member, or politician.
Our enemy is the cunning serpent from the garden who seeks to devour souls.
We seek to free them.
The only way to do this is to suit up.
Failure to put on the full armor of God is to wage war naked.
Sometimes we wonder why we seem to be so beaten up as followers of Jesus.
Sometimes we walk out of the house without our armor on.
If you want your best shot at standing against the onslaught of of projectiles the enemy is launching at you, you must suit up!
The armor of God provides the only defense against the devil and his tactics.
The interesting thing here is Paul starts with what is commonly referred to as the belt of truth.
The Roman belt is seemingly the smallest and least protective piece of a Roman soldier’s armor.
I don’t know about you, but a belt is the last thing I put on when I get dressed, but it is in the first position here.
Is there a reason?
Well, it turns out that the belt of a Roman soldier’s uniform was worn at all times, even if the rest of the armor wasn’t being worn.
So of all the pieces of armor a soldier has, the belt never comes off.
The belt is also the one piece that is central not just because of its location, but because it supports everything else.
The sword and the breastplate are physically connected to the belt when everything is worn.
So Paul creatively anchors the most important concept to the one piece of armor the Roman soldier never takes off, and that is truth.
Truth is central in our defense against the schemes of the devil.
What is truth?
Truth is that which corresponds to reality.
Truth is aligned with the facts.
It is telling it like it is.
We operate every day by this understanding.
We inherently know there are things that are true and things that are false.
We know there are things that are true in an absolute sense, meaning that the thing that is true for me is also true for you, the person living in Singapore, Japan, or South Africa.
We call this absolute truth.
The things that are true are true for every person in every place at all times.
The culture we live in has traded absolute truth for relativism, but only when it comes to matters of morality and religion.
We expect and demand the truth in virtually every other area of our lives.
Our culture likes to talk about my truth or your truth, or what’s true for you might not be true for me.
But this concept isn’t true.
If you go to the bank and try to withdraw $1 million, Jackie is going to look at you like you’re crazy because you don’t have $1 million in your bank account.
But you say, “Well I feel like a millionaire and it’s true for me that there is $1 million in my account and I would like to withdraw it.”
Jackie will tell you it doesn’t matter what you think or feel is true, there is not $1 million in your account.
Your belief does not match reality.
Let’s say you go to the doctor and you hear the three dreaded words, “You have cancer.”
You can’t say to the doctor, “Well that might be true for you, doc, but that’s not true for me.”
The truth is, whether you want it to be true or not, you have cancer and that reality has certain implications.
A treatment plan needs to be developed.
Your life depends on your willingness to accept what is true.
It is absolutely true that you have a terminal disease and it is absolutely true that that you will die if you do not treat it.
It does not matter what you think or feel, nor does it matter what anyone else thinks or feels.
Truth corresponds to reality and the reality is this cancer will kill you unless it is beaten.
We live in an age where absolute truth is rejected.
The concept of postmodernism has risen in its place.
Postmodernism is difficult to define because at its core, it rejects any sort of absolute definition.
Postmodern thought rejects the idea that truth is absolute.
So you will hear people say things like, “That’s true for you, but not true for me,” or, “there is no absolute truth.”
But the problem with this is that it does not meet its own standard.
Postmodernism has to borrow from absolute truth in order to deny it.
Think about that statement.
There is no such thing as absolute truth.
Is that absolutely true, or is that only true for you, and not for me?
The problem with this view is it can’t support itself.
We call this a self-defeating claim.
You’ve heard people say, “You should not judge.”
Well, the problem here is that statement is a judgment itself.
So by saying it, you are doing the very thing you are saying not to do.
It does not meet its own standard.
How about “The scientific method is the only means of knowing truth?”
Well if that were true, it would actually be false because it is a statement about truth that is not known by the scientific method.
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