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Ephesians 6:10-12
We invite you to worship with us each Sunday morning at 9:30. We have studied Paul’s concluding command to Christians to “Be strong in the Lord and His mighty power.” Now we come to the second concluding command which is to “put on the full armor of God.” I like the way God always tells us to do things in order so we can do all He asks us. As we look at dressing for battle let’s consider first
- EVERY CHRISTIAN’S PREPARATION. These two commands have something in common. Both are command Christians must do! We must never get the idea God does everything for us just because we are Christians. No parent ever does everything for their children. Only the children can learn to walk, talk, reason, think and so on. The parents teach them patiently, but the children must DO to learn. So it is in the Christian life we must do what we can, then God does the rest. Jesus taught us in the model prayer in Matt. 6 “Thy will be done…” The principle of operation throughout Scripture is that God expects His adopted children to allow God to show Himself through us as we submit to God’s mighty power. After God tells us to be strong, He tells us to put on the full armor. Why? So we can stand against the vicious attack of the devil. The Christian armor is made to be worn and there is no command ever to take it off. The armor isn’t going to jump on you just because you are a Christian. You must make a conscious decision to put in on and leave it on every day. Now consider
- THE CHRISTIAN’S PERSPECTIVE. When you get dressed every day, your activities determine how you dress. No matter what you are doing, you always dress completely. Paul makes the statement to put on the whole armor, not just what we want. When God inspired him to write this, God knew that we face a formidable enemy every day and we need to be completely dressed for such a battle. Our first perspective must be to dress completely. Read Ps. 35:1-3, then read 2Cor. 10:1-4. Notice we aren’t to use human weapons, but heavenly weapons, that aren’t carnal. Our second perspective as Christians is to use the armor God provides. He has designed it for our particular battle. What exactly is our particular battle? I like what one writer said commenting on this passage, “spiritual warfare is not a struggle against power, it is a struggle to maintain truth.” Think about that. We are fighting to maintain God’s truth, through the way we live our everyday lives so people get a true picture of Who God is, what He is like, and that He desires that all come to Him for His salvation. Our power originates in God, not us. Our armor originates with God, not us. Therefore our lives are to be lived in His truth, not our desires. We are not struggling for power, because if that were true we would be struggling to exalt self. As Christians we are fighting hard to exalt God, His righteousness, His glory, His honor, and His Son Jesus Christ. No Christian in and of themselves can stand against the devil and his demons. Ea re called to defend truth as God’s truth and we are to do it God’s way. The reason it is becoming so hard for many Christians to hold a conservative and fundamental view of Scripture is because of Satan’s attack on God’s truth. We must not allow truthful witness to be destroyed by personal struggles for personal power; rather we are to stand strong against Satan defending God’s Truth and His Life.
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