His Love Ministries
Episodes
Wednesday Feb 25, 2015
EPHESIANS 6:17 TO WIN THE BATTLE YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE HELMET AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT
Wednesday Feb 25, 2015
Wednesday Feb 25, 2015
SALVATION, which is like a helmet
A Roman soldier
wouldn't go to battle without a helmet, he'd be foolish. A Roman soldier would
be very careful to get his helmet on. Now helmets were made out of basically
two things, leather with some patches of metal on it, pieces of metal or else
those molded solid cast helmets, you know you've seen with the plumes depending
on what regiment, what function, what period of time you were involved in. But,
but a helmet was very important to protect the head from arrows flying around
for one thing but primarily from what was known as a broad sword. There was not
only the machaira, the little dagger that he uses in verse 17 but there was in
the midst of a battle those who carried the broad sword which was from three to
four feet long, longer than your yard stick, and it had a huge massive handle
that you held with both hands like a baseball bat. And you just lifted it over
your head and went around flailing away at some footmen down there. The broad
sword was a tremendous weapon and you wanted to have a helmet to deflect a blow
from a broad sword, because it would deal a heavy, splitting blow to the skull.
He's not talking about past element of
salvation or the present feature but he is talking about the fullness of it. We
are waiting in hope, we are holding onto hope that someday the battle will be
over and someday we won't have to struggle with sin and the flesh and the devil
and the world and demons. Someday we'll know the hope of a full righteousness.
Look at 1Peter 1:3 and here is a great benediction, Peter says, "Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant
mercy, has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead." In other words he says we have been saved to a
hope, to hope for an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, that fades not
away, reserved in heaven for you." Our hope is heaven. "We are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation." A salvation "ready
to be revealed in the last time."
In other words in case you get
weary and you think maybe there's never going to be an end to it, He'll be back.
There will be an end, there will be a goal, and there is a finish line. And
that's exactly what the helmet of salvation is; it's the hope of ultimate
salvation. 1Thessalonians chapter 5:8, "But let us "who are of the
day," that is we're not of the night that's Satan's dominion, we're of the
day that's sons of light in God's Kingdom, "let us, who are of the day, be
sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love," now watch,
"and, for an helmet, the hope of salvation. There is still an element
of salvation to obtain, God has appointed us to obtain that finally, and it is
the helmet of salvation. The writer of Hebrews says Heb 6:16 For men indeed
swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all
dispute. 17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of
promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, 18 that by
two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have
strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before
us. 19 This hope we have as an anchor of
the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the
veil, 20 where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become
High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
Summing it up, the
helmet of salvation is confidence in a full, final, total salvation to come.
It's confidence that someday the battle will be over. I couldn't fight if I
didn't think there was a finish somewhere, could you? There's got to be an end.
That big broad sword that the
Roman soldier would have to face had two sides? Do you know what Satan's big
broad sword is; it's got two sides to it? One side is discouragement and the
other side's doubt. You know what Satan wants to do? He wants to belt you
right in the head with discouragement and doubt, get you discouraged, you're
sure giving a lot and not getting much in return, you're living this Christian
life, setting yourself apart from the world you're living it, and what happens?
You just lost your job. Great blessing, huh? You've been reading your Bible
every day and your wife is as cranky as she was before and nothing has had an effect
on her at all. What's God doing in your life? You've been going to church for
so many years, look at your kids, they don't respect you now any more than they
ever did. And you begin to get discouraged. I've been teaching a class so long
and I wonder whether anybody gets anything out of it, you say. And you get real
discouraged, that's one of the things.
The other thing Satan wants to hit you in the head with is doubt. How
do you know you're really a Christian? Are you sure you're really saved? You
don't deserve it look what you just did. Do you think that's a manifestation of
being a Christian? And people suffer from doubt and discouragement, and that's
what he uses. And the helmet of salvation is a protection.
Let's talk about the area of discouragement, look in 1Kings 19,
great story of Elijah. Elijah is kind of the Peter of the Old Testament he's up
and down a lot But Elijah at this point has just had a great victory, I mean a
victory like no other prophet of God ever had, he just took out a sword and
slaughtered four hundred and fifty priests of Baal.
God said, Elijah you
have no business being discouraged, now you get yourself up here in Mount
Horeb. Elijah gave Him some song and dance about I'm the only one left Lord, I'm
the only one left, I'm the only faithful person You have. And the Lord says in
chapter 19:18, “Yes, I have seven thousand others beside you, it's not just
one, it's seven thousand and one Elijah, now get back there and get busy.” It's
so easy to become discouraged, and I can vouch for that even at the moment of
some of your greatest triumphs you go back to reality and you go wow, how did I
get here? It's easy to be discouraged.
And
you hang in there because you know that day when you're going to be like Jesus
is coming.
Dr. Richter of Johns Hopkins
Medical School carried out an experiment that attempted to measure the
motivational effect of having a goal. The experiments involved placing rats
into cylinders of water that were thirty inches deep by eight inches wide.
After a short time, half of the rats were momentarily rescued by being lifted
out of the cylinder for a few seconds, then put right back into the water. The
other half were not. The group that was given hope swam for more than three
days. The other rats drowned almost immediately.
The
rats that knew there was a chance of being rescued again had a goal - to stay
alive until the next rescue. The other group had no goal, so they just gave up.
* There's
a second thing, and that is that Satan has another edge on his sword. It isn't
discouragement it's doubt. And maybe doubt is the ultimate discouragement. Do
you know that Satan wants you to doubt your salvation? Oh he is really good at
that. Most people suffer from that at some point in their Christian life.
Ro 8:38 For I am persuaded that
neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things
present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created
thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.
It is the
"hope" that salvation provides that can protect our minds against
things like despair and fear Is 59:17;
Ro 5:10
We have the mind of
Christ 1Co 2:16; Ro 12:2; 1Pe 1:3-5;
John 10:28; Ro 8:31-39; Phil 1:6
THE WORD OF GOD, which is the "sword of the
Spirit"
Finally, to the sword
of the Spirit which is the word of God. The previous armor has been primarily
defensive but now we come to a piece of armor that is both defensive and
offensive. I've heard people say that this is offensive. It is more than that
it is defensive as well.
The
word of God is similar to this short sword for the Christian. "Word"
(Gr. rhema) refers to the utterance of God rather than to the written Word or
the living Word of God (Gr. logos). It seems most likely
to
refer to the words of Scripture that we use to counteract the particular temptation
we face. It is the appropriate Scripture spoken or put to use by the Christian
in a given instance of temptation that is in view (e.g., Matt.4:4, 6, 10).
"As
Jesus used the words of Scripture to repulse the tempter, so must the Christian
know and use the words the Spirit has inspired to drive away Satan."
a. Here is the "offensive"
weapon that Christians must use in their battles, and it is a powerful one! - He 4:12; 2Co 10:3-5; Luke 4
b. With this "sword" it is
possible for the Spirit to "cut to the heart" those who hear the Word
- cf. Ac 2:36-37; 7:54
It is the sword of the Spirit in the sense that the
Spirit has given it. But if you put both together you get this idea, our sword
is spiritual because it was given to us by the Holy Spirit. 2Ti 3:14.
The Scottish pastor and writer Dr.
Guthrie said, "The Bible is an armory of heavenly weapons, a laboratory of
infallible medicines, a mine of exhaustless wealth, it is a guidebook for every
road, a chart for every sea, a medicine for every malady and a balm for every
wound. Rob us of our Bible and our sky has lost its sun."
One writer said the
authorship of the Bible is so wonderful. "There are words written by
kings, by emperors, by princes, by poets, by sages, by philosophers, by
fishermen, by statesmen, by men learned in the wisdom of Egypt, educated in the
schools of Babylon and trained at the feet of rabbis in Jerusalem. It was
written by men in exile, in the desert, in shepherd's tents, in green pastures
and beside still waters. Among its authors we find a tax-gatherer, a herdsman,
a gatherer of sycamore fruit. We find poor men, rich men, statesmen, preachers,
captains, legislators, judges and exiles. The Bible is a library full of
history, genealogy, ethnology, law, ethics, prophecy, poetry, eloquence,
medicine, sanitary science, political economy and the perfect rules for
personal and social life. And behind every word is the divine author God
Himself."
First of all, the Bible claims that it is infallible. That means
that it is without error in total. That the sum of it all makes no mistakes.
That it is faultless, flawless, without blemish. In Psalm 19:7 it says;
"The law of the Lord is perfect.” In its total, it is reliable.
Secondly, in its parts it is inerrant and that means that there is
no error in it. In Proverbs 30:5 it says, "Every word of God is pure,"
Every word. "Pr 30:6 Add thou not unto his words, Lest he reprove thee,
and thou be found a liar." And so His word is infallible in total,
inerrant in part.
Thirdly, it is complete. Revelation 22:18-19 says, "If any man
shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues that are written
in this book and if any man shall take away the words of this book God shall
take away his part from the tree of life." In other words, you can't add
to it and you can't take away from it and that means it is complete.
Fourthly, the Bible is authoritative. In Isaiah 1:2 we read;
"Hear oh heavens and give ear oh earth for the Lord hath spoken."
When God speaks everybody better listen; that's what it means when it says it's
authoritative.
Fifth, the Bible is sufficient. In 2Timothy chapter 3 it says:
"That it is sufficient to make you wise unto salvation, it is sufficient
to make you perfect thoroughly furnished to all good works". This book can
bring you to salvation and bring you to perfection. There is nothing other than
that that is needful. So the Bible is infallible in total, inerrant in part,
complete, authoritative and sufficient.
Sixth, it is effective. When it speaks things happen. The Bible
changes things. The word of God works transformation. In Isaiah 55; "So
shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth, it shall not return void but
shall accomplish what I please." It is effective. The reason I preach it
is because I believe it will do what it says it will do.
Seventh, it is divine. 2Peter 1:21, it says; "That the
scripture did not come from any private interpretation, it came not from the
will of man but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy
Spirit." It's God's book. Now listen, a book that is infallible, inerrant,
complete, authoritative, sufficient, effective and divine is a book that ought
to be cherished.
Lastly, it is also determinative. What a person does with a Bible
reveals his relationship to God. Jesus said; "John 8:47 He that is of God
hears the words of God: for this cause ye hear them not, because ye are not of
God". If you listen to the Bible it shows you belong to God. If you don't,
it shows you don't The Bible, then, becomes a determiner in the sense of a
man's eternal destiny and his relationship with God. What an incredible book.
There is no book in existence in the universe that can make these claims and
substantiate them, only the Bible.
What does the Bible do for you? What does the Bible offer you? What
resources does it bring to you?
First of all, it's the source of
truth.
John 17:17 says, "Thy word is truth." It's the truth about life, death,
time, eternity. The truth about heaven and hell, the truth about right and
wrong, the truth about men and women, the truth about old people and young
people, the truth about children, the truth about society, the truth about
every relationship between God and man, every relationship between man and man
and every relationship between man and creation. The truth about everything
that's needful.
Secondly, the Bible is a source of happiness. We see the world
around us chasing happiness like mad, just furiously chasing happiness and the
simplicity of scripture is this, Proverbs 8:34; "Happy is the man who
hears Me." The simplicity of the statement of Jesus in Luke 11:28,
"Happy are they who hear the word of God and obey it." That's happiness,
no man is happier then he who discovers truth.
Third, the Bible is the source
of growth.
Life is all about growing but not growing in the way that they think. We are to
grow in the knowledge of the word of God, because Peter says, "Grow in
grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ." How do you do that?
Again, the word is the source of growth. In Peter he says, 1Peter 2:2, "As
babes desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby."
Also, the Bible is the source of power. We're really impotent in
our lives if we don't use God's word. The Bible is the source of our power.
"The word is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword."
The Bible is the source of
guidance,
Psalm 119:105, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my
path."
The Bible is a source of comfort, Romans 15:4 talks
about the comfort of the scripture. The Bible is the source of perfection, 2Timothy
3:16, "That the man of God may be perfect!" The Bible is the
source of so many things. This incredible book that never has an error,
never makes a mistake is always sufficient and complete and authoritative and
effective and determinative can bring to your life truth and happiness and
growth and power and guidance and comfort and perfection.
And one other thing, the Bible is the source of victory over the enemy.
And with that we arrive at Ephesians 6:17. It is the sword of the Spirit which
is the word of God that gives us the weapon against our enemy. That's why I
preach the word of God. That's why we systematically teach the word of God.
Because, it wouldn't even matter if all of those other things I said about were
true if you never learned it. You would have at your disposal a resource never
used.
Now the word sword here is a
very interesting term. It is the word in the Greek “machaira”. This is the more
normal sword carried by the soldiers, anywhere from six inch long daggers to 18
inch swords or so. They were put into a sheath or a scabbard by the side of the
soldier and were used in hand-to-hand combat.
Paul said to the Corinthians in
2Cor. 10:4 that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but spiritual. That's
his implication there. And so we are using a spiritual sword. The fact that
verse 12 says we are fighting spiritual wickedness; he's talking here about a
spiritual sword. Of course, all of this is spiritual. We have really a
spiritual belt and a spiritual breastplate and spiritual shoes and spiritual
shield and a spiritual helmet.
The Bible in your life is a weapon. It's only a matter of whether
you know how to use it. And learning how to use it is dependent upon how
diligently you get involved in studying the word of God. That's why the apostle
Paul spent three years in Ephesus and said, "in Ac 20:27 For I shrank
not from declaring unto you the whole counsel of God." Why? He wanted to
teach them how to use the sword. He wanted to give them the whole thing so that
they would be able to use it effectively.
The word then is our weapon, and
it's powerful. It's powerful in Romans 1:16 it says, "So powerful",
he says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of
God unto salvation". You wield this sword and people will get saved. You will literally use the sword as it were
to tear away souls from the kingdom of darkness. With the sword you can cut a
path through Satan's dominion.
It can be used in judgment. In Hebrews chapter 4:12 where it says
the word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword
piercing even the dividing asunder of soul and spirit of joints and marrow and
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The word discerner means
to judge by sifting out the evidence. The word of God becomes that which judges
people. You preach the word and it brings to bear on their life the judgment of
God. And it sits and weighs their life in the balance of the authority of the
word of God to show them the fact or reality of their sinfulness.
The next verse he says that's
why, Hebrews 4:13, "no creature can hide himself but everyone is made
naked before God's word." God's word comes like a sword taking souls from
the kingdom of darkness. God's word comes like a sword piercing into the hearts
of men, sifting the evidence and showing them their own sin and guilt before a
holy God. This is a powerful weapon. It
is so powerful it can bring truth into error. It is so powerful it can bring
happiness into sadness. It is so powerful it brings light to darkness and shows
you the way. It is so powerful it changes sorrow into joy. It is so powerful
that it changes stagnation into growth. It is so powerful it takes an infantile
person and makes them mature. This is a powerful thing. This is what we
hold in our hands; the sword of the Spirit.
Let's talk about
its defensive capability. If you've ever seen anybody use a sword
you know that a sword is used as much to block a blow as it is to inflict one.
And a person who uses a sword uses it along with that part which covers his
hand to defend himself against the blows of his enemy. And the way you use the
word of God defensively is really critical. Satan comes to attack you with his
temptations. He comes to attack you with his assaults and you can literally block
his blows with the proper use of the word of God.
For example, we see our Lord, in
Matthew chapter 4 and in Luke chapter 4 and Satan comes to Him three times and
Satan attacks Him with three direct temptations. Number one is to don't trust
God, make stones into bread, don't wait for God to supply your needs, grab it
on your own. And Jesus comes back and quotes scripture exactly related to that
temptation out of Deuteronomy. Satan comes a second time and says, “Furthermore
I'm going to tempt you now to trust God where you have no business trusting
God, dive off the temple and let Him catch you.” And He uses another scripture
from Deuteronomy exactly dealing with that temptation, third time, bow down to
me. And He uses another scripture exactly dealing with that temptation.
In other words, precisely He
uses the “machaira” of the word, He doesn't flail It around indiscriminately He
uses it precisely to deal with exactly the temptation that Satan shot at Him.
Listen, you have to be able to defend yourself at whatever angle the temptation
comes from. And there are Christians who own Bibles and they've sat in churches
and they've been in classes and they've even read it but they don't really know
the principles and so they can't stop the attack at one point or another.
Satan will find out
where you don't have that information and that's where he'll start hitting.
You must learn the principles of
the word of God and that's why 2Ti 2:15 says you have to study to show yourself
approved unto God.
* Secondly, it's an offensive
weapon.
This
word is powerful, so powerful the Bible says it converts the soul. No word of
man can route the spiritual hosts of wickedness, only the Word of God. So it is
defensive as we know it to defend ourselves, it is offensive as we go out and
conquer Satan's dark kingdom. And again may I remind you that when you use the
word of God offensively it has to be specific?
But, if you're going to be
effective at communicating you've got to know the word so you can be instant in
season and out of season. As 1Pe 3:15 says but sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason
for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; So that you have an
answer, Peter said. We need to know the word of God.
Walter Martin says the tragedy of Christianity is that a ninety day
wonder out of Jehovah's Witnesses can take apart a Christian in thirty minutes.
And in many cases that's true. We just really don't know the word like we
should. Because we don't know it like we should we can't defend ourselves and
we can't use it as an offensive weapon. Oh, the more you know the word the more
you're going to march through Satan's kingdom because God's Word has answers
that cut right into the core of his lies. And so we need to know the word.
He not only gave you the book,
He planted in your heart the resident truth teacher and He'll teach it to you
if you'll submit to His teachings. Nobody's going to be able to plead
ignorance. I don't understand those big words. You can understand God will
enable you to understand as much as you need to understand to win the victory.
It isn't that tough, I understand it.
If
anything is ever good, it indicates that somebody's put a lot of effort into
it. That's the way it is in your life. Just because you own a Bible doesn't
mean you have a sword. You can own a Bible warehouse and not have a sword, if
you don't know how to use it defensively and offensively. Jesus gave us the
pattern, He said, "What does the scripture say?" That's how to live
life, that's how to approach temptation, that's how to approach ministry. In
Acts 17 it says “The Bereans were more noble then the others because they
searched the scriptures.” That's true Christianity.
Tuesday Feb 17, 2015
EPHESIANS 6:14B-16 TO WIN THE BATTLE YOU HAVE TO STAND FIRM
Tuesday Feb 17, 2015
Tuesday Feb 17, 2015
V14b The whole armor of God involves putting on the
breastplate of RIGHTEOUSNESS, which guards like a breastplate 2co 7:1;
1Th 5:8 This means we have a right relationship with God
A breastplate covered two vital
areas, the heart and the bowel area. Now to the Jew this had a great significance,
symbolically the heart represented the mind. The Bible says in "Pr 23:7
For as he thinks in his heart, so is he" " Mt 15:19 "For out of the heart proceed evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
blasphemies. "The heart is the thinking aspect of life, the heart in
Hebrew terms or symbols means the mind. "The heart of man is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked." Thinking is associated with the heart. The bowels are associated with
feelings and emotions.
The heart then means
the thinking process and the bowels refers to the emotions, and if we can draw
that across to our imagery in terms of the armor this is what we're saying.
Satan wants to attack a believer in two areas primarily,
one, in his thinking, two, in his emotions. One in the way he thinks and feels
another in the way he responds emotionally. And the believer must be protected,
because this is where Satan makes his attack, he feeds your thinking and your
emotions with false information, he wants to cloud your mind with false
doctrine, lies, religious untruth, anything he can, and he wants to appeal to
the wrong parts of your emotions, he wants to bring about evil emotional
responses, he wants to twist and pervert your affections. And so the sum of it
is this, if you protect your thinking and your feeling from the attacks of
Satan you're protected. He'll try to confuse your mind with false doctrine or
he'll try to confuse your emotions to make you long for, lust for, feel after
and have affection for the wrong things.
V 15 THE GOSPEL OF PEACE
What is the first word in verse 14? Stand, this is not
going, this is standing that the Apostle is speaking in reference to. And the point here is not
evangelizing the lost, the point here is not preaching the Gospel, the point
here is fighting the devil. This is conflict for a Christian. He is not talking
about going anywhere and preaching, he's talking about standing where you are
and fighting the devil.
The idea is best in the words, expressed in the words of
1Corinthians 16:13, "Stand fast in the faith." And he is saying,
because our feet are shod with the Good News of peace we stand our ground, we
don't slip, we don't slide, we don't fall when we're under attack
V16 FAITH, which is like a shield
And
so that's what Paul sees here, this thing quenches the fiery darts of the evil
one. Now we need to ask ourselves, what are the fiery darts? What is it we're
trying to stop? Well in the battle of those days the archers would get their
arrows and they would put some material, some ball of cotton or something like
that on the tip and it would be soaked in pitch, which would burn rather slowly
but rather hotly, and then they would have that dipped and before they would
shoot the arrow they would light it, and when it hit its target it would
splatter the pitch and it would start little fires on the clothing of the
soldier or whatever and burn him, or burn up perhaps whatever target they had
in view, if it was made of wood. And so this was what was in Paul's mind, and
with the deflection of a metal face on a shield or the leather that would
extinguish these there could be protection.
Now what are Satan's fiery darts? They're seducing temptations, that's
all. He's simply referring to temptation. Satan fires shafts of impurity,
shafts of selfishness, doubt, fear, disappointment, lust, greed, vanity,
covetousness, it all comes down to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life. He literally bombards the believer with the arrows, the
fiery darts of seductive temptation to bring out of us ungodly, non-Christ like,
evil responses. And the only defense we have at this point, Paul says is the
shield of faith because sometimes it just rains temptation. We live in a world
where it’s all around us and we must have the shield of faith.
Now what does he mean
by the shield of faith? We understand the Roman picture, we've got the picture
of the army and the arrows flying around, why is faith a shield against
temptation? How does faith block the arrows, how does faith secure the victory?
Well the term faith means believing God
and that is the bottom line of the Christian faith, that is the bottom line
of everything we believe, everything we hold to, everything we have our
confidence in. The whole of Christianity is an act of believing that God is,
and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seeking Him seek Him.
Believing that He wrote the Bible, believing that Christ is God, believing that
He died, believing that He rose, believing that He's coming, believing that by
believing we can enter into His Kingdom. The whole thing. That's why Habakkuk 2:4 says, "The just shall live by his
faith." Romans 1:17 says, "The just shall live by faith."
Galatians 3:11, "The just shall live by faith." Hebrews 10, "The
just shall live by faith."
The shield of faith is the consistent
application of what we believe about God to the issues of life. Now if you don't trust Him then you don't know Him well enough, because
if you really knew Him you'd trust Him.
Wednesday Feb 11, 2015
EPHESIANS 6:11B-14A STANDING AGAINST THE SCHEMES OF THE DEVIL
Wednesday Feb 11, 2015
Wednesday Feb 11, 2015
First we have to have our strength in the Lord and
secondly we have to have the armor on.
We need to be strong
in the Lord so we can know who our enemy is and so we can stand against the
schemes of the devil 1
Corinthians 15:58 – Be Steadfast, Immovable
Not only do we battle against Satan, but we battle
against: demonic forces
a. principalities and powers, rulers
of the darkness of this age, spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly
places
Our duty is not to
attack Satan, or to defeat him, but rather to withstand his attacks
1Co 10:12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take
heed lest he fall.
You know when you are
vulnerable? When you think you are not. When you think I have all the
information - I've mastered the book of Ephesians, I'm alright, and I know what
to do. I've got the principles. Or when you think you can handle Satan. I've
got all the necessary equipment. But on the other hand, the point is this, when
you think you can do it - you can't. But on the other hand, when you depend
upon God there is nothing Satan can do, to you that needs to cause you to lose
the victory. 1Co
10:13
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is
faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but
with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to
bear it.
Paul’s words about spiritual warfare
in chapter 6 in the context of Ephesians, means we wage the spiritual war, not necessarily
in terms of grand battles and heroic actions, but in terms of simple faith in
the teachings of Paul in chapters 1-3 and in terms of our obedience to the
commands of Paul as found in chapters 4-6.
Paul’s instructions
concerning the spiritual war are similar, in that Paul is informing every
Christian that they have been drafted, not to fight a physical war, but to
fight a spiritual war. We are not encouraged to take up the “full armor of
God,” we are commanded to do so. These verses are our marching orders, and we
dare not ignore them, or fail to carry them out to the letter.
When our life comes to an end, I
pray that we will be able, like Paul, to say, “I have fought the good fight, I
have finished the course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).
Thursday Feb 05, 2015
EPHESIANS 6:10-11A INTRO TO HOW TO WIN THE BATTLE
Thursday Feb 05, 2015
Thursday Feb 05, 2015
We Need To Know We Are In A War Is 14:12-14,
Ezekiel 28:12-15
When it comes to defining the Christian
life, the best term is warfare. At the end of Paul’s life he said, “I have
fought a good fight.” In his ministry he said, “I fight not as one who beats
the air.” To Timothy he said, “Be a soldier who endures harness.” Repeatedly in
Scripture the Christian life is seen as warfare. When Jesus began His ministry
the first part of His ministry was a battle with Satan, after forty days of
fasting in which Satan approached Him and tempted Him subtly three times. And
the way His ministry ended was the same way as Satan began to come against Him in
the garden of Gethsemane and He began to sweat as it were great drops of blood.
The Christian life never stops
being a war, but the longer you fight the battle the greater the number of
victories. And the more battles you win, the more confidence you have in God
and the more you know that HE is going to take you through and the more exciting
it is as you see God's power working in your life.