Ephesians Part 101

INTRO: Our subject is spiritual warfare. It is easy to forget in life that we are in a battle. Take a look at this battle for a moment. It is between God and Satan. Here is all of mankind. We have 7.7 billion of them. A small fraction of those are true Christians. Operation World estimates the number of Evangelicals in the world to be 546 million, which makes for 7.9 percent of the world's population. Those who work a lot with many professing believers think that only about 10% of professing believers are truly born again. In the mind of mankind this battle is won or lost. The devil has by far the majority of mankind on his side. So, for this battle, the believer is instructed to put on the whole armor of God. Without the Christian soldier's armament, this believer will be overcome by the wicked one.

We have looked at the belt of truth. If you will watch the news you will see truth under attack at almost every turn. We have looked at the breastplate of righteousness, and now we look at the shoes. Paul says, "Having your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace." How important are the feet shod with good shoes to a soldier? Well, one is not likely to survive without them. But notice the importance of feet in our passage. Verse 11 wishes that we might be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Well we stand on our feet; no feet, no standing. So verse 13 says, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand, or stand in the evil day. A very important part in this battle is to stay upright what one wears on the feet. And then it says, "And having done all to stand, stand therefore." Again, the soldier stands on his feet.

When Martin Luth