Keep Fighting the War
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Word of Truth through which the Holy Spirit guides us is Ephesians 6:10-20 [Read the text]
Dear fellow warriors of our Lord Jesus,
For thousands of years the sword was the key weapon for soldiers. They could use it as a defensive weapon to block the blows of the enemy. More importantly, it was their chief offensive weapon. With the sword they attacked and conquered. Although modern warfare and equipment is vastly different, you have seen pictures of ancient warriors dressed in breastplate and helmet, wielding his sword.
The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul uses that picture to urge us to be fully equipped in our war. What is that war? What are our armor and weaponry? Let’s listen to God’s answer to those questions as we focus on the theme: Keep Fighting the War. 1) Know your enemy. 2) Use God’s weaponry.
1. Know your enemy
a. “Not against flesh and blood”
As the commander-in-chief of enemy forces, Satan schemes to fool you and me about the real war. So often we think our enemy is that bully at school who calls you names or you parents who set down strict rules. We think our enemy is that neighbor that keeps irritating you, that coworker or competitor who cheats to get ahead, or that relative whose words cut you down. We think our enemy is the disease that wastes away your body or the governmental regulations that can make your work difficult. But listen to what the Holy Spirit about the real war and the real enemy:
“Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:10-20 NIV).
What does that mean? Your enemy is not the school bully, the inconsiderate neighbor, the brash relative, or the malicious coworker or competitor. They can’t separate you from your Savior. Rather your enemy is the sinful attitude against them that Satan cultivates in your heart. It’s the simmering anger that continues day after day. It’s the desire to get even. It’s the temptation to give back as good as you get.
Likewise, you enemy isn’t strict parents or governmental regulation. Rather it is the rebellious attitude that kicks against the authorities God has placed over us. Your enemy isn’t the disease but the temptation to worry or blame God or to give up. As Jesus pointed out to the Pharisees (in the reading from Mark for today), it is the evils that flow out of our own heart that makes us unclean and unacceptable to God (Mark 7:23). “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood.”
b. Satan’s deadliest weapon
As destructive and deadly as these sinful attitudes can be in us, we haven’t mentioned Satan’s most deadliest weapons: Doubt.
Although doubt can be good when we are evaluating the claims of other sinful, human beings, doubt has no place in our relationship with God. Doubting what God says and promises is the opposite of believing it. Doubt is the opposite of faith. In the text, Paul talks about the shield of faith “with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16 NIV). When doubt replaces faith, we are defenseless.
If we doubt what God says about sin, it’s much easier for Satan to lead us into sins like anger, rebellion, and worry. Why should we be concerned about sinning, if we doubt that God hates sin and leaves no sin unpunished? Why should sinning trouble us if we doubt that God is serious about damning to hell all who do not perfectly serve him with holy lives? But all our doubting will not change the reality. God says, “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16 NIV). “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law” (Galatians 3:10 NIV). “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23 NIV).
Then once he has caught us in sin, Satan casts doubts on God’s promise of forgiveness in Jesus. As he builds in us doubts about Jesus, he tempts us to trust our own efforts to be good enough, to trust human advancements to take away our worries, to trust the amusements of life to distract us from our problems. And if we realize how hopeless these things are, then Satan drives us to despair, to give up. As long as doubt separates you and me from the promises of Jesus, we have no hope, no salvation, only death and hell.
c. Our defense
What is our defense against doubt? None of us have a perfect faith. All of us struggle with doubts. What is our defense? How can we fight against this deadly weapon of Satan?
If we picture doubt as deadly snake venom, the antidote is the promise of Jesus. When you feel doubt spreading through you body, run to God’s promises. Here the Good News. God promises you: “Though your sins are like scarlet [that includes our struggles with doubt], they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18 NIV). How can this be? “The blood of Jesus, [God’s] Son, purifies us from all sin . . . He is atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 1:17; 2:2 NIV). This Good News drives away doubt so that it does not disable and kill us.
How does God administer this antidote? He brings you the Good News through the Bible, through Baptism, and through the Lord’s Supper. These are the only three sources through which God brings his promises, which drive out doubt. Any other book or sermon will only help if it derives what it says from these three sources. Even praying does not drive out doubt or build faith unless in prayer we are taking to heart God’s promises, which he only makes to us in the Bible, in Baptism, and in the Lord’s Supper.
Keep fight the war against the real enemy. Keep fighting against Satan’s doubts. Keep fighting doubt by continually going back to God’s promises in the Bible, in Baptism, and in the Lord’s Supper.
2. Use God’s Weaponry
a. A description of the armor
As we begin the second part, we’ve already have started talking about God’s weaponry. It’s his Word that comes to us through the Bible, through Baptism, and through the Lord’s Supper. But lets see how each of the pieces of army Paul describes is pointing us back to these three sources.
“Stand firm with the belt of truth buckled around your waist” (Ephesians 6:14 NIV). What is truth? God Word is the truth (John 17:17). We can stand against Satan’s doubts when the truth, revealed in God’s Word, encircles us like a belt.
“Stand firm . . . with the breastplate of righteousness in place” (Ephesians 6:14 NIV). When you were baptized, your sinful life was covered with Jesus’ perfect, righteous life. No accusation of Satan’s can penetrate Jesus’ righteousness. You stand before the holy God with the confidence that he accepts you because Jesus has covered you with his breastplate of righteousness.
“Stand firm . . . with you feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:14, 15 NIV). In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus brings peace to your guilty heart. He gives you is real body and blood so that you know that he really sacrificed himself on the cross for you to bring you peace with God. This peace makes you and me ready to serve him in thank love, wherever he may direct our feet to go.
In the first part we talked about the shield of faith. Just as a shield is only as good as the material it’s made out of, faith is only as good as the promise it knows and trusts. A faith built on human hopes is like a paper shield. Satan’s flaming arrows easily penetrate and destroy. Faith that holds on to God’s promises in the Bible, in Baptism and in the Lord’s Supper – that faith is like a shield made of impenetrable steal.
“Take the helmet of salvation” (Ephesians 6:17 NIV). Apart from God’s promises in the Bible, in Baptism, and in the Lord’s Supper, there is no salvation. But through these three he saves you for eternity.
“Take . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17 NIV). Since the sword was the key weapon, Paul explicitly connects the sword with the word of God. The Bible is the Word of God. And God makes his word visible by connecting his word to water in Baptism and by connecting to bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper. Any false teaching that goes against the Bible, Baptism, or the Lord’s Supper blunts and breaks the sword of the Spirit. In the first lesson (Deuteronomy 4:1, 2, 6-8) Moses urges God’s people not to add or subtract from his Word in any way. Don’t damage the Spirit’s sword. Hold on to the true teaching of God’s Word. Hold on to the sword of the Spirit. Keep fighting using God’s weaponry.
b. The role of prayer
Finally Paul talks about prayer. Notice that prayer is not described as part of the full armor of God. Prayer is different than the Bible, Baptism, or the Lord’s Supper. God speaks to us through the Bible, Baptism and the Lord Supper. We speak to God through prayer. Without the God’s Word coming to us first, prayer is worthless and meaningless.
Yet when God’s Word lives in our hearts, when we study the Bible, remember our Baptism, and receive the Lord’s Supper, then prayer to our Lord comes from our hearts. Every Christian can pray. You don’t need a special course to learn some secret about prayer. As we fight the war against Satan and his weapon of doubt, we humble turn to God in prayer. As we put on the armor of God by studying his word, remembering our Baptism, and receiving the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Spirit fills us with the desire to pray.
What do we pray for in our warfare against Satan? Pray for whatever is on your heart as the Holy Spirit directs you through God’s Word. “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests” (Ephesians 6:18 NIV). But especially remember to pray for your fellow believers who also war against Satan. Paul calls believers saints, which means holy ones since through faith in Jesus we are covered with Jesus’ holy life. He urges us: “ . . . keep on praying for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18 NIV).
Pray that God’s Word is fearlessly proclaimed in all its truth and fullness. In so many churches today, doubt rules because they have added and subtracted from God’s Word. Pray that the may see God’s truth. Pray that we as a congregation and church body may continue to proclaim the truth. Pray for me, as your pastor, so that I to keep on preaching God’s Word correctly, just as Paul asked, “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make know the mystery of the gospel” (Ephesians 6:19 NIV).
Conclusion
The sword was the key weapon in ancient times. The sword of the Spirit, God’s Word, is our key weapon as well. The sword of the Spirit comes to you through the Bible, through Baptism, and through the Lord’s Supper. Pray that the Spirit’s sword is not damaged by false teaching. Keep fighting the war against Satan and his doubts. Keep fighting that war using the sword of the Spirit. Amen.
