I'm just going to read the first three verses beginning in chapter 6 verse 10, 10 through 13, which is our text for this morning as we move into Paul's basic final and exhortation here. Ephesians 6.10. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. This is pray, and ask the Lord to speak to us this morning from the Word of God. Father, we, most of us at least, are well acquainted with this passage. I just pray now that the Spirit would attend the exposition of Your Word, that He would indelibly stamp the truths of Your Word upon our heart, that we would not just leave with a full head. But Lord, that our lives would be challenged. And Lord, you would convict us. And Lord, you would so work in us that we would run for refuge and flee for safety in Jesus Christ. Remind us, Lord, of the glorious truths of the Gospel. Help us, Lord, to glory in our Redeemer. And we ask, Lord, even during this hour that you would Lord, keep us from the schemes, from the wiles, from the methodical plannings of the evil one. Lord, who would love nothing more than us just to sit here and daydream, or think about hockey games, or to think about work tomorrow, or think about anything and everything but the gospel of Jesus Christ and the things of eternal significance. Oh Father, as David prayed, unite our hearts to fear Thy name. Lord, unite my heart to fear Your name. Remind me what you said of Paul, that he did not come with a fancy oratory, but he came preaching the simplicity of the gospel, and that in the power of the Spirit. O Lord, would your word go forward this morning in great power, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Stephen Lawson, regarding this passage, says the following. The Christian life is not a playground. Rather, it is a battlefield of spiritual warfare. The closer we follow the Lord Jesus Christ, the more we advance to the front line of the conflict. This is the sobering reality that confronts every believer. No Christian can afford to be ignorant of the threatening schemes of spiritual combat. Not when so dangerous an enemy is seeking the destruction of our faith. It is critical that we be well informed regarding Satan. who prowls about as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. I like that. That Christianity is not a playground, rather it's a battlefield. And I think of 2 Timothy chapter 2 where Paul likens Timothy's enlistment as one as an enlistment into battle. That we make it our aim to please the one who has enlisted us and we don't get caught up in civilian, the things of this world, civilian pursuits. And if you're anything like me, in the reform tradition, I think we sometimes forget this. I think we just memorize a whole bunch of stuff and we read a lot of scripture and we forget that there is an enemy who seeks to undermine the work of Christ in and through his church, and thus including us. Sadly, many Christians are so influenced by a materialism that has crept in through the philosophy of this age that we might give lip service to the fact that there is a spiritual being or spiritual beings or demons But in our practical day-to-day living, we really don't live as if we have an enemy waging war against our souls. And so this is very important that we slow down here in Paul's final exhortation. This is the climax, one commentator said, of the second half of Paul's exhortational section. Remember chapters one through three? That's the doctrine. This is who you are. Chapters 4 through 6. This is how we live in light of who we are. And this is the climax. This is how we are to live in light of who we are in Christ. As one preacher says that Ephesians can basically be summarized in three words. Sit. Walk. Stand. We are seated with Christ by faith in the heavenly places. Chapter 2. Chapter 4 says we are to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called. And chapter 6 says we are to stand. We are to stand against all of the schemes and all of the onslaughts of the evil one. So this is very important that we get Paul's final exhortation. Finally. Finally this is the last thing. In light of all that he's taught, finally be strong. Now I've preached this many times before, but I have no problem doing it again, that I summarize Ephesians by sort of a list of scriptures that are easy to memorize. It's the 110, 310, 210, 610. Okay, and this helps us navigate through the book of Ephesians. And we're in the final ten now, we're in 610. But I don't mind doing a little bit of review, because if you're anything like me, I'm asking, well why is Satan so angry with us? Why is he so opposed to the Church? What has he got against us as Christians? Why is he so ruthless? Why does he not play according to the rules? Why is he scheming against us? Why is he trying to thwart The church. Why does he have a vested interest in attacking the church? So go back to Ephesians 1.10. 1.10, 3.10, 2.10, 6.10. I hope this will give you eyes to see the spiritual realities of what's going on. We walk by faith and not by sight. I often think of Elisha and his servants and how Elisha prayed to the Lord that he would open up the eyes of his servant, that he might see the spiritual realities that encompass him. Sometimes we can walk around in a very materialistic worldview. Yes, we believe God created the world in six days, and yes, this, and yes, this, but really, we function almost like unbelievers. 110 is, I believe, the thesis of Paul's letter here. This is the thesis statement. In verse 9 it says that God in His grace has made known to His elect the mystery of His will according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ. Okay, so God has an eternal purpose and He set this purpose forth in Christ. Verse 10, to unite, sorry, as a plan for the fullness of time. So this is God's eternal will. to be carried out in the fullness of time, to unite, or you could translate that word to sum up, bring under the headship, all things in Christ, things in heaven, and things on earth. The language of Ephesians is very eternal, that before God even created the heavens and the earth, He had a plan to unite, to sum up, to bring under the headship of Christ all things, things in heaven and things on earth. And the things in heaven include all of those fallen spiritual beings. Okay, so that's God's purpose. But how does He carry it out? That's where you turn to 310. Okay? God is reminding the believers that Paul has been invested with an apostolic authority to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. This mystery of chapter 1 is to be preached to the Gentiles and Jews alike. And it says here, In chapter 10, that the church is the means through which God is manifesting His manifold wisdom. It says in verse 9, that Paul has been commissioned to bring to light for everyone what is the plan, same word in chapter 1, what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church God might bring to light for everyone this plan. So God is summing up all things in Christ through the church. Okay, because it says that in verse 12, this was according to the eternal purpose that He is realizing Christ Jesus our Lord. So God's eternal purpose is that in the fullness of time Christ would come and He would die and He would be raised and He would set up His church on earth to carry out His mission. He would commission His church as it were to sum up all things in Christ. This is why Satan so attacks and hates the church. Because the church is the vessel, the instrument, the conduit through which God is seeking to sum up all things, unite all things in Christ. He does this in chapter 2, 10, as the church walks in the good works God ordained for her. Okay, so we just quoted our scripture memory, for by grace you have been saved through faith. We're saved by grace through faith. But verse 10 says, for we are His workmanship. I've translated that, we are His new creation. Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand. See the eternal language? That God has an eternal purpose. To stomp all things in Christ through the church, as the church walks in these predestined good works. So Satan, who hates God, who hates Christ, therefore wants to hinder and inhibit anything that advances in God's eternal purpose. This is why he has it in for the church, and this morning we find ourselves in chapter 6, verse 10. God is seeking to sum up all things through Christ by the church as we walk in good works in the context of a fallen world, in the context of spiritual opposition. Finally. Yes, you're to walk in good works. You're to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called. You're to display before the heavenly realities and all those on earth the power of Christ's gospel. Yes, you're to display those things. But it's going to be a battle. It's not as easy as you might think it is, is that we're displaying God's power in the midst of spiritual conflict. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. that we have an adversary who seeks to work us woe, in the language of Martin Luther. So why does Satan have it in for God's people in the New Covenant, characterizes those in the Church? Because the Church is the instrument through which God is bringing glory to His Son, by which God is furthering the Kingdom, by which He is accomplishing this eternal will to sum up all things. If I was a foe, I would go after the one thing that is furthering the purpose of my enemy. And so that's why some of you this morning find yourself embroiled in spiritual conflict. That's why you find yourself being attacked ruthlessly by an evil foe who seeks to undermine your testimony, who seeks to prevent you. from doing good works, from walking in a manner worthy, who is tempting you to be bitter and angry, who is tempting you to lie and to be selfish, who is tempting you to be greedy and to speak unwholesome words, who is tempting you to live in a sinful way that discredits the power of Christ's gospel. This morning, I'm going to basically do what I did last week. I'm just going to work through the text. Paul just simply has the command of being strong in the Lord, power to carry that command out, in verse 11, by putting on the armor of God. Why we should do it? Because we fight a powerful enemy. And then he just reiterates it, in verse 13, just to emphasize how important this is. As C.S. Lewis said in his preface to the Screwtape Letters, he says that the danger is that people in our day and age fall into one of two ditches when it comes to spiritual realities. He says that there's those who pretend that there really isn't a spiritual reality, which is very materialistic. Everything is to be proven by scientific inquiry. I was watching a YouTube clip yesterday I don't know why, but it was called the atheist experience, and they're very rational. They have no place in their worldview for a spiritual realm occupied with evil beings. That's the danger, and the church actually sometimes, especially I'll say reformed churches, become very intellectual. Everything is rationalized. Let's look at the Greek. Let's look at a systematic theology book. Everything is to be explained by our intellect. That's one danger, Lewis says. The other is what you'd call those who are super spiritual, or the charismatics, we'll say. They fall into the other ditch. There's the materialists, Lewis says, but then there's the magicians. And they're so preoccupied with the spiritual realm that they forget to realize that Christ is seated in the heavenly places. And so these are the people who are naming demons, who are rebuking demons, who are binding demons, who are blaming demons on everything. Satan made me do it. And so there's either an under-emphasis or an over-emphasis. And I think Ephesians 6 gives us a balanced view. I hope this morning that even just reading through the text reminds you that Satan is at war with you. If you are a Christian, you've been enlisted into a battle, you are waging a good warfare, you're fighting a good fight. It's how Paul sums up his life in 2 Timothy 4. It's a fight. And Satan would love nothing more than for us as a bunch of proud, arrogant, reformed people to think, well, it's not really that big of a deal. I'll just keep reading textbooks. I'm just going on in our intellectual, puffed up knowledge kind of way. Satan wants us to believe he doesn't exist. That's very good. It's just as effective as us over-focusing on him. Like many churches do, like the church I got saved in. Just so focused on Satan, that they've lost sight of who? Of Christ. And as Lloyd-Jones says, that this passage reminds us where to look in three directions. Or at three people, if you will. He says, first we need to look at the Lord. Right? He is mighty, He is strong. Be strengthened in the power of His might. I would translate, in His sovereign power be strengthened. Remember, that He has triumphed in Christ. So you look at the Lord, but you also have to look at your foe. There's rulers and authorities and cosmic powers over this present darkness, and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. You have to look there too. And finally it says you have to look at yourself and realize how weak you are, which causes you to look back at Christ. We are helpless, our foe is mighty, but Christ has conquered and He is the sovereign king over all things. He has conquered Satan and his minions. So, the command, be strong, or as I would translate it, be strengthened in the Lord. Paul is using a play on words here, in the Greek, and it's a whole bunch of what you call endu letters. The Greek word for be strengthened is enduo. Put on clothes is, and do something, I forgot what it is, and then be strengthened is dunamai. So the first, and do, he says, is be strengthened. It's a passive. Why do we need to be strengthened in the Lord? Because we have no strength in ourselves. That's the first thing we need to recognize. That apart from Christ we can do nothing. For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe. His might and power are great, and armed with cruel hate. On earth is not his equal. Though we in our own strength did confine, our striving would be losing. We're not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing. Dost ask who that might be? Christ Jesus it is He. Sabaoth his name, from age to age the same, and he must win the battle. That's why we're going to sing it after the service. Finally be strong in the Lord. And if you're anything like me, you're like, what does it mean to be strong? Okay, yeah, that's great, be strong in the Lord, but how? What does it look like? Well, the first thing is you need to be in the Lord. You can't be strong out of the Lord. So here's your gospel message. Are you in the Lord? Have you been saved by the grace of God? Are you in darkness or are you in the Lord? Remember I gave you this gospel presentation when we were looking through chapter 6? Children, obey your parents in the Lord. It's possible only to be strong if we are in the Lord. And the way you go into the Lord is, as Calvin says, you need to get out of yourself. You can't be in yourself and in the Lord, so what you need to do is flee from your self-righteousness, flee from all of your sins, and you need to rest in Christ. For by grace are you saved. So this morning, if you're not in the Lord, the Gospel says you can be saved. That Christ will forgive you of your sins. If you repent of those sins, get out of yourself and rest in what Christ has accomplished on Calvary and His resurrection. Finally, Be strengthened or be being made strong. It's a present tense. All the other ones are errors. But you need to keep being strong, which reminds us that this battle is not a one and done. If you're anything like me, you've faced conflict and by God's grace, you've got through it. And then you just sort of like, OK, you know, time to get in the cot, time for a siesta. It's not like that. He's ruthless. I've never read in scripture that he sleeps. By God's grace, the Lord in heaven neither slumbers nor sleeps. But Satan is ruthless. And the book of Revelation says he knows that his time is what? Is short. Sort of like some of you when you're getting ready for church. Time is short. So you don't have time to take breaks. Everything's hurried. Everything's intense. You gotta get it done now. Because your time is short, lest you walk in late and feel lesser or something like that. Don't worry. Be strong, be strengthened in the Lord and in the strength of His might. You need to be strengthened in the Lord and in His powerful might, in the powerful sovereignty, in His sovereign strength. How do you do that? It's verse 11. If you're in the Lord, you're strengthened in the Lord by putting on the whole armor of God. So verse 10, it says, be strengthened. It's a passive. We don't strengthen ourself, and yet as Lloyd-Jones, I read five of his sermons yesterday, and in every sermon, he preached like seven sermons on Ephesians 6.10, so if you think that I am slowing it down, I got nothing on Lloyd-Jones, but he kept saying this. He said, Christianity is not a let go and let God religion. Yes, this is a passive. Yes, we have to be strengthened by God. But it's the same idea as being filled with the Spirit. That you're strengthened in the Lord by appropriating the means the Lord has given His church. He says that Christianity is not some kind of spiritual mantra where you keep saying, be strong in the Lord, be strong in the Lord. What in the world does that mean? I need to be made strong in the Lord. How? You need to put on. And every commentator I read, says that this is precisely what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4. So I want you to turn there quickly. So, be strengthened in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Yes! We need His power. Why? Because we're going to see our foe is mighty. We're toast if we fight Satan in our own strength. We're not going to, in our own strength, confine, lest our striving be losing. So chapter 4, Paul says in verse 20, That when Christ saved us, He delivered us from this futile kind of thinking. He saved us from this wicked kind of living, this greediness to practice every kind of sensuality. That's not the way I preach Christ to you, Paul says. Christ is everything you need, and so I preach to you Christ and Him crucified. Assuming that you've heard about Him and were taught in Him as the truth is in Jesus. What are we supposed to do with this truth? We're to appropriate it. We're not just to sit there and do nothing with it. We're to appropriate. We're to put off our old man, literally, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. Where do those deceitful desires come from? The flesh. But who activates those? Satan does. So Paul says, here's the gospel in all its fullness, chapters 1 through 3. All that you are and all who you are in Christ. But you need to appropriate it. You need to live that out. You need to put off your old man. Why? Because the old man is susceptible to Satan. The old man belongs to the old order of living. And in chapter 2, who is the prince of the power of the air? Satan. 2 Corinthians 4, who is the god of this fallen world? Satan. Satan attacks the old man. because the old man is under his realm. But Paul says, you're a new man in Christ. You're created after the likeness of God in righteousness and holiness that comes from the truth. So part of being strengthened in the Lord means appropriating the truth of the gospel. To appropriate the truth of the gospel, you need to do what? Preach the gospel to yourself every day. Just so you know, Satan will preach you a false gospel every day. Every moment you sin, right away there's two gospels being presented before you. God does not love you. God will judge you. God is not just. That's the false gospel of Satan. The true gospel of Paul says, God does love you. He sent Christ into this world to die for you. Turn from your sins. That time of refreshing might come. Get right with Christ. He will strengthen you to walk in a manner worthy. Right? The false gospel says, you screwed up Sharon, now try harder. Okay, so be clothed. Put on God's strength. And in chapter 4, put on the new man. Put off the old, put on the new. How do you do that? Put off verse 22, put on verse 24. You know this, it's the sandwich. You got two pieces of bread. Put off, put on. The meat of the new man, you could say, is renewing your mind. A present tense. Renew your minds. Renew the spirit of your minds. What does that mean? Go back to chapters 1 through 3. Though I have sinned, by God's grace, I am found in Christ. The one who predestined me to be conformed into His image. The one through whom I have been adopted into God's family. All of those glorious truths. That in Christ I have the redemption through His blood. The forgiveness of my trespasses. I need that. Because Satan's called the tempter. The adversary. That's what he does. He's the accuser in the book of Revelation of the brethren. And he works in various avenues. So some of you, you sin. And right away, you feel all depressed. That's spiritual warfare. You're going to look at yourself, you're going to look at your sin, but you're not going to look to Christ. You know who's motivating that inward look? Satan. You never thought about that, have you? When I sin, you know what I start to do? I start to become overly introspective. Because I think that somehow that's very pious, very spiritual. But God over and over and over and over in the Bible says look to me Though your sins be red like scarlet I'll make them white like snow That if you're in Christ if you confess your sins that I'm faithful and just to forgive you of all of your sins and cleanse you from all of your unrighteousness. It's funny, we know those verses as children, but this is how we put on. This is how we are made strong. God strengthens us, but how? How are you strengthened? Yes, it's God's sovereign work. Yes, you're passive in it. But really, you're not passive in it. You're strengthened by God's power as you get into the Word. The gospel is the what? The power for salvation. You think that's just justification? It's the power from depression. It's the power from over self-examination. It's the power from condemnation. It's the power for sanctification. I know I preach this almost every sermon, and I should. But you strengthen in the Lord by renewing the spirit of your minds, by looking at the truth as it is in Jesus. This is who Satan says you are. This is who the gospel declares you to be, if you're in the Lord. Back to chapter 6. Finally, be strengthened. Be strong. Continually be strengthened in the Lord. Be made strong in the Lord and in His mighty strength. How? Put on the whole armor of God. Okay, we're going to unpack that in the weeks to come. But I've said this before, that the whole armor of God is simply the gospel, with various aspects of the gospel. The gospel has so many beautiful diadems in it. It's so marvelous, you can look at it from many angles and it's glorious. Sometimes you need to focus on the gospel of sanctification, sometimes the gospel of propitiation, sometimes the gospel of justification, sometimes the gospel of hope and glorification. The gospel is massive. That's the whole armor of God. You can't just pick and choose which parts of the gospel you like, which unfortunately we as Christians often do. So I just read a book called Antinomianism, and it says that there's been this huge surge, praise be to God, on justification. And rightly there should be. The Reformation came when the church was reawakened to the truths of being saved by the grace of God, by faith in what Christ has done, that we can be made right, or declared right, In God's eyes, in Christ. Okay, but that's only one aspect. That's not the sum and substance of the gospel. That's the foundation of it. You need to put on the whole armor of God. Some of you need to put on justification this morning. Some of you need to put on glorification. Some of you actually have to think, wow, one day God is going to glorify us. That's Romans 8. Paul's thinking about the hope that is to be revealed to us. He's thinking of glorification. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present age aren't worthy to be compared with what? The glory that is to be revealed to us. Paul's putting on the armor in Romans 8. Some of you need to be reminded of justification. Who will bring any charge against God's elect? None. It is God who justifies. More than that, Christ who has been raised from the dead and is now interceding for you. See how rereading Romans 8 is so practical? Right, so we're going to go out, hopefully, door to door. We need to put on the gospel of God's triumph in Christ. I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me. We're more than conquerors through Christ who is in us. Okay, so Paul says, put on the whole armor of God. You need to have a full orb, a panoply. of the gospel, a big view of the gospel, not just one aspect of it. And you need to be like a good doctor, and you need to know which part of the gospel is going to actually be necessary tomorrow. When you wake up with doubts, the gospel of justification is fantastic. I'm a sinner, yes, but I am justified by faith in the sinless one. That when God looks upon me in Christ, He sees me as righteous. Isn't that great? Isn't that good for sinners? If you're lazy, you need to understand the Gospel of Romans 5.10, that you will be glorified in the future and you're going to have to stand before Him. The Gospel of Philippians 1.6, you who began a work will complete it. The Gospel of Philippians 2, work out your own salvation. See how the Bible is so rich? Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might, His Gospel. Put on the whole gospel of God, you could translate it. Paul's looking at a Roman soldier perhaps, but put on the whole gospel of God. Why? That you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Over and over Paul says we need to stand. It's the language of standing in battle, holding the line. And those of us who love World War II, that was one of the most important strategies. Hold the line. If you don't stand or withstand the onslaught of the enemy, you're done. There's bullets zinging around everywhere. Hold the line. That's what he's saying here. Put on the whole armour of God. Why? That you might be able to stand. Stand what? Against the schemes of the devil. Greek word? Methodia. Against his methodologies. It's the same schemes in chapter 4, by the way, which reminds us that Satan's most devastating and dastardly schemes are theological schemes. Don't be like children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness, or by crafty schemes. Okay? You need to wear all the armor. Why? Because Satan... You know, if I'm boxing, And I know that there's a weakness on my opponent. Am I going to play to that weakness? Yeah. It's what you do if you want to win. So you can't just pick and choose. You put all the armor on. Why? Because we have an adversary who schemes. Did you know that? He schemes. He plans. He's like Wild E. Coyote. Right, the King James says, the wiles of the devil. Still don't know what that word means. But it's schemes. Methodological. It's very clever. He knows where your weaknesses are. Do you know that? He knows which of you struggle with pride or arrogance. He knows which of you struggle with lust. He knows which of you struggle with covetousness. He knows the idols that you naturally go after. He knows. How crazy we are. Just assume that he's not interested in us. He's very interested in us. Why? 110, 310, 210, 610. Satan wants to have a defeated church. And so if it takes him harping on the same sins you fall into, he'll do it. He's nasty. Put on the gospel and all of it. Appropriate it by faith afresh. Run there. Some of you need to run to the gospel this morning. Right now you should stop listening to me and maybe start reading Ephesians 1. Some of you are thinking, I quit listening to you a long time ago. The schemes of the devil. Diablos. Four. So be strong by putting on. God has mighty armor. And as we're going to see, Paul is thinking of Isaiah chapter 11, Isaiah 52. That it's God's own armor that He gives His people. In a sense, as one commentator said, it's actually not just putting on God's armor, but it's putting on God. Which makes me always think of Romans 13, 14. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. And in doing so, you will not make any provisions for the flesh. Who attacks the flesh? Satan. How do you put off the flesh so Satan can't attack you? Renew the spirit of your minds. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. What does that mean? You know, am I giving him a piggyback? No, that basically means understand the gospel and appropriate it. Believe in it afresh. Actually believe. I don't feel justified right now. That's okay. You're justified by faith and not by feeling. Have you run for refuge and cast your entirety of your soul upon Christ for salvation? Yes. The Bible says you're justified by faith. If you struggle with that, I guarantee Satan is going to hammer you. He's going to rock your world continually. Some of you need to stop playing with the world and you need to start putting on the armor. You need to change your schedule. Because verse 12 says that we're not playing against a kitty cat. Some of you are struggling with sin and you're not actually being ruthless with it. I'll just let go. God will deliver me once. If you want to think that way. You know who that lie is coming from by the way. It's not coming from the scriptures. Satan wants you, yeah, just sit there, just sit there in your self-pity. Some of you should probably change your schedule this week and spend more time crying out to God to show you the Gospel afresh. You know how you put the Gospel on? By reading it, and as we're going to say, by praying. I know that you say read and pray every Sunday. You know why I say that every Sunday? Because Satan attacks you every Sunday, and Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday, and Friday, and Saturday. Christianity is a lot simpler than we make it. Put on the whole armor of God. Get in. If you say, I don't know the aspects. Talk to somebody. Here, let me show you all these facets. All these beautiful signets of the Gospel. When we do so, we can stand. The reason we need to stand is because in this present evil age, Satan is attacking. He's not giving up. He's not going to stop until the moment you die. I wish he would. I wish there would be a little bit of reprieve. Like even in World War II, sometimes they would stop on Christmas Day and they'd talk to each other over. Satan's not like that. You need to keep putting on the gospel because you need to keep standing because he keeps attacking. You need to dig your feet into the ground. Four. We do not wrestle. It's a great word. It just literally means to wrestle. You're a soldier who is in close combat. It's not from a distance. You need to wrestle against these foes. And if you're going to wrestle against this foe, you better have weapons, not your own. Because you are blood and flesh. He eats people up and spits them out. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual foes, sorry, forces of evil in the heavenly places. I was reading one commentary and literally Paul says, we do not wrestle against blood and flesh. The English translation switched the order up, just because it's fun, I guess. But in Paul's time, often what commanders in the Roman army would do is they'd say, by means of encouraging their troops, they'd say, remember, we are not fighting the gods of our foes. We are fighting men who are blood and flesh, just like us. So don't grow weary. They're men just like us. Take heart. And Paul says the opposite, he says, don't take heart if you fight against, you're not fighting against blood and flesh, you're fighting against angelic beings. And it's not me just saying, okay, we got a fighting chance because we're pretty smart and we're reformed. That's not it. We need to be strong in the Lord, because only He has and can conquer our foes. Now I don't want to get into too much, but Paul has against four things. The rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, spiritual forces. I'm just going to say this very quickly. The Charismatics completely destroy this verse and they think that there's all these subcategories and there's demons over this building and in this city and you know what they do is they actually call it territorial spiritual warfare. And they need to find out, have anyone ever read Frank Peretti's Yeah, it's very much like that. You know, there's certain demons in this realm, and so they're rebuking the demon of death, or the demon of flat tires, or the demon of, you know, laziness, or whatever. No, I don't know where they get that. Paul is just saying, there's a whole bunch of demonic forces against us. That's all I take from verse 12. I'm not going to start saying, well, what's a ruler, and what's an authority, and what's the cosmic power of this president? Every commentator who's evangelical said it's just a way of emphasizing that it's multifaceted. It's very variegated. There's all kinds of demons. And they're very strong. Cosmic powers over this present darkness. They're spiritual forces of evil. Where? In the heavenly places. We have no right to try to fight them in our own strength. To try to resist them. To try to stand against them. Finally be strong in the Lord. Why? Because our foe is mighty. Verse 13. Here's the reiteration. This is a very, very fast sermon. The reason why is because I don't have any notes. Because it was a busy week. So maybe you should pray differently if you want your sermon shorter. But he reiterates, therefore, literally in the Greek, for this reason. Therefore, take up the whole armor. Paul, you already said that. You ever do that with your kids when something's important? Don't cross the street. There's things that will kill you. And then you're telling them a whole bunch of things. Don't cross the street. Dad, you told me that. And the reason why I'm telling you again, because it's so bloody dangerous. Your life is in peril if you don't listen. I'm going to repeat it, because it's so important. Many of us would do good to take heed to this. That when you leave here, understand you have a foe who's trying to destroy your marriage. Remember we saw in chapter 4, you give place to the devil when you let resentment and bitterness harbor in your unforgiving heart? Give no opportunity, give no place to the devil. If you're having a tiff this morning, Satan is trying his hardest to try to break you up, if you're a Christian. Because you represent Christ and the Gospel's power to unite all things in Himself. Therefore, for this reason, take up. Clothe, take up the armor now. Clothe yourself, but take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand. He's strengthening the Word. Dig your heels in, because it's not a light or short battle. That you may be able to withstand in the evil, What is that? Monday? Is he more evil on Friday? What is the evil day? This whole age is an evil day. Galatians 1-4. Some days are worse, but this whole age until Christ comes back is the evil day. I know it's not an encouraging message, but it sure is a sobering and realistic one. You're going to have to continually, every day, renew your mind, take up the whole armor, put on the whole armor that you might be able to withstand all of his wiles, all of his flaming darts, all of his accusations, all of his libeling you, all of his tempting you, all of his lies and all of his damnable false doctrines. You're going to have to actually be serious and fight. We actually need to have a wartime mentality. It's a really good book. It's by Piper. It's called Don't Waste Your Life. And over and over and over, he says that we need to have this wartime mentality. You know why we don't pray? Or you know why we abuse prayer? He says that most often, we treat prayer, we treat God sort of like a butler. I could use some blessing now. But in Ephesians 6, he calls it a wartime walkie-talkie. God, I'm suffering here! I'm being tempted to watch porn again! God, I'm angry with my wife! Give me grace! Remind me of the gospel! That's prayer. You're supposed to pray in the Spirit. May the Spirit remind us that we're in a fight. Therefore, because we have such a formidable foe, and he's got all kinds of crafty schemes against us, and that he is crafting these schemes against us in an evil day, where he controls much of the fallen world system, we need to be diligent. We need to stand, therefore. and having done all to stand firm. Lloyd-Jones says that we have to put on the armor, and after we have done all, we have to stand firm. And he's saying often what we do, is say you're playing sports, so in hockey you put all your stuff on for the fight, and then after you think the game is done, what do you do? You take it off, and you sort of have a break, and have a snooze, and have a sleep, and then you put it on when you think you need it again. Rather, you've got to put it on and keep it on. You've got to put on your armor and stand firm. You don't have to put it on. Uh-oh, I'm getting really tempted now, so I'll put... This is what I do. I'm getting tempted. I run to the gospel. Temptation alleviated. By the grace of God, I say, no, Titus 2. 1 Corinthians 10. God provides a way of escape. The Spirit enables me to find that way of escape. That was a close one. You know what I do? That's my temptation for the day. Punch my temptation. Ticket. And I guess I'm done. I start to relax. Having done all, I don't stand firm. Having done all, I relax. Isn't that crazy? I told Christine, it came to my mind. I always have a brave heart rolling through my mind. And in one of the battle scenes, they got their faces all painted up and Wallace goes, he's going to pick a fight. And, you know, they're vastly outnumbered. And then one of the characters name is Hamish. Have you watched Braveheart or am I just talking to myself here? Okay, you guys have. And they're sitting there and he looks over to them and the guy says, well, we didn't get dressed up for nothing. I was going to do the accent, but I'm the worst at accents. But he says, we didn't get dressed up for nothing. We came to fight. We didn't put on all this garb to sit around and let them shoot arrows at us. No, we're engaged in a battle. And having done all to stand in the evil day, to stand firm. Okay, so next week we'll look at the ways we stand firm. Be strengthened in the Lord. Yes, how are you strengthened? By putting on the gospel. By putting on the whole gospel, or the whole armor of God. That is our defense mechanism against all of his wiles, his schemes, his methodological attacks. He's powerful. Remind yourself, when you're bitter at your spouse, You're not wrestling against her. Hopefully you're not wrestling against her anyways. But when there's a little bit of a conflict, when you're gossiping against your boss, when someone has wronged you, where's the battle being fought? So, when you're sharing the gospel, when this two weeks ago, I forget, but me and Chris were just here and a Mormon invited us into his house and we sat in there for, I don't know, half hour, 45 minutes. This wasn't a chess match of intellect. Who can quote more scriptures? This is a battle not against a Mormon. He's believing a satanic lie. A false Christ and a false gospel. I can't battle against him. Your co-workers who are pagans, don't get angry with them. The battle's not against flesh and blood. And remember, that's how you used to walk, Ephesians 2. The great confidence you can have in the power of the Lord is that He has saved you. What is the greatest demonstration of God's power ever exerted, or manifested, or visibly shown to us? I think of creation. Oh, so amazing. All things are being held by the Word of His power, Hebrews 1.3. I want to close with this, because it just came to mind. Look at Ephesians chapter 1 and chapter 2. I just want to encourage you. I want to give you an exalted view of the Lord's might. Because you're like, OK, it's good. I need to trust in God. But how powerful is He? Is He really powerful enough to overthrow the temptations, the discouragements? Whatever way Satan hammers you, he's got many schemes. I don't know how he's scheming against you, but he is. But can the Lord deliver you? Chapter 1, Paul prays. I pray that the Spirit might give you. He finds out, yes, you're believers. Your faith is in Christ. And when you're born again, you have love toward all the saints. So I'm going to pray to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation. What? So you can prophesy? He wants the people in Ephesus to understand who they are in Christ. Who helps you understand who you are in Christ? So, I can say to the cows come home, Paulina, you're adopted through Jesus Christ. You are a member of the household of faith. That sounds good. But who enables Paulina to get that so she can fight against the schemes of the devil? It's the Spirit. As I'm preaching, you should be praying. Not for a well-crafted sermon, because my crafted sermon is not as crafty as Satan's schemes. Spirit, take the gospel of adoption and apply it to Paulina's heart. Reveal that to her. Give her spiritual, capital S, wisdom. Remind her, open the eyes of her heart, that she might understand the gospel of hope. She might understand what are the riches of the inheritance that are hers in Christ. And thirdly, look in verse 19. And what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us as we believe? You put on the armor through prayer and faith. What is this immeasurable greatness of His power? Why do we need power? He doesn't say in chapter 1. He tells us in chapter 6. This is why He's praying. Finally! All that I've talked about the Gospel, stand in it! And may the Spirit enable you to stand in it! Too many of us just have an intellectual understanding of the Gospel. We're binitarians. We don't believe the Holy Spirit has to actually illumine our hearts to show us these spiritual realities, 1 Corinthians 2. What is the immeasurable greatness of His power towards us who are believing? Here it is, according to the working of His great might. Exact same Greek words there as in chapter 6, 10. That He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. Let me paraphrase what Paul is saying here. Holy Spirit showed Dini this morning that the power at work within her is the same power that conquered Satan already when Christ was raised. I don't think I can be Him! He has been beaten. Ephesians 1 says Christ already put him to shame. Well, let me keep reading. This power, this great might, that's the exact same Greek phrase, by the way, like identical in chapter 6, be strengthened in the Lord and in the power of his might. It's the same thing. Great might. That he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Where are these spirits? There's spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Far above all rule and all authority. Some of you can flip back to Ephesians 6.10. For we do not wrestle against blood and flesh, but against who? The rulers. Oh, it says here that Christ has been seated far above all rule. It says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities. But it says in Ephesians 1 that Christ has been seated in the heavenlies far above all rulers and authorities. And every name that is named, even the cosmic powers over the spiritual, yup, even the spiritual forces of evil, yup, Christ has been raised far above them. Above every authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things under Christ's feet and gave him his head over all things to whom? to the church, for the benefit of the church. So when you put on the Lord's strength, all you're doing is reminding yourself that in Christ you are more than a conqueror through Him who loved you. So they're saying that Christ has already defeated those. I just feel that I can't, I can't beat Satan. Christ already beat him. And that power that beat him and raised Christ from the dead is at work in you as you believe. Isn't that amazing? It almost sounds too good to be true. But the same power through which Christ conquered the foe by being raised from the dead, says it's at work. It's in you right now as you believe. I don't feel that he's that strong. Chapter 2. And, you being dead in your sins. The same power that conquered not only Satan and his host, conquered your fallen flesh. If you were a Christian, You have every reason to have confidence in the strength that Christ provides you. Why? Because you're a Christian. So these forces are ruling over, well let's read, and you being dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air. Just so you know, the Greek word is kata. ESV translates it following. We don't bow, kata, against rulers, against authorities, against cosmic. All those are kata. And in Ephesians 2, it says we once walked kata, according to the world, according to Satan. We were under his power and under his realm. according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we once lived the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body or literally flesh in the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind but God and you being dead but God being merciful there's the greatest demonstration of power ever exerted in your life If God conquered you who were a slave to Satan and the fallen world, if He transferred you out of darkness into His marvelous light, He is able to protect and provide for you in this battle that is waging war against the church. That's the argument in Ephesians. You feel that Satan is stronger than you? None, none can keep God from saving His elect. And none can take the elect out of His hand, John 10 says. So in this mighty One who conquered you, who conquered Satan, the One who loved you and gave Himself for you, be strong in Him. Be strengthened in Him. Finally, here's the exhortation, here's the application. And I'll let the Spirit apply to your heart in your own way. Finally, be strong in the Lord. Please memorize this text. That's what I've been doing more than anything lately, is just memorizing it and meditating on it. You're going to forget most of what I've said. But if you hide this word in your heart, God will find ample ways to apply it to your circumstances. When He's flinging those darts at you, right! I'm a whim, so I need to be strengthened or I need to be made strong. I need to avail myself to the gospel. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God. Do it now. Don't wait until after lunch. You might lose a battle already between now and lunch. Do it now. Put on now the whole armor of God. That you might be able to stand against his schemes. The devil's scheming right now. Put it on now. For you don't battle against little weird guys with tails and pitchforks and spiky. That's not the one we're battling. These guys are I'm going to do a Sunday school on angels later. But we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers whom Christ has defeated, against the authorities whom Christ has defeated, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand in the evil day. For some of you, it's a very evil day. Put on the armor now. And having done all, Keep standing firm. I don't know what else I can say. Paul makes it very simple. I just pray that the Holy Spirit will remind you that you're in a war, but in Christ you have all that you need for life and godliness. You have all that you need to stand firm in the evil day and having done all to stand firm, not as a coward or as a wimp. And then next week we'll start unpacking all of these different armaments, which is basically different aspects of the gospel. And we need to put it all on by prayer. Are you availing yourself to the armor of God? It's one thing to sit here and listen that you need to put it on. It's another thing to put it on. It's one thing to say, okay, in Christ I can do all things. It's another actually to believe it and to apply that to your life. Are you in the Word? Are you reading it Christologically? Are you praying for God's grace to help you understand the Word and to appropriate it, to apply it by faith? Are you in community that is gospel-centered? Because there's no armor for the back. I was thinking about a couple who don't go to church anymore. And the last time I talked to them, I had some very disconcerting things come up, where I thought, ooh, that's almost heresy. Where does all heresy come from? It comes from the pit of hell. Are you in gospel-centered fellowship? Are you praying with a gospel-centered understanding of things? And are you immersing yourself? Are you renewing your mind? in the righteousness and holiness that has come by believing the truth. I hope so. I hope that we're not playing games. Father, I just pray, help us. As Paul prayed, that we might have strength with all the saints. Lord of this inward man, would you strengthen us in the gospel, through the gospel, with the gospel. not just to talk about it because it's the cool thing to say that we're gospel-centered. Lord, I pray that we'd be gospel-armed and gospel-equipped and gospel-dressed and gospel-living. Lord, remind us of the lyrics we're about to sing. Remind us, Lord, that we've not been called to some kind of amusement park Christianity, but we've been enlisted into a fierce battle. Remind us, Lord, of all that is at stake, the glory of God in Christ summing up all things through the Church. Father, equip us to put off the old man, all those ways that Satan can still get a foothold, and help us to put on the new man, this new creation, created for good works, which you prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Father, we pray that we'd be filled with the Spirit, Help us, Lord. Help us to stand and to withstand, and having done all to stand firm in the evil day, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.