Battle Gear-pt1
We are people who enjoy our stories and movies about battles. Countless
movies and books have been written about the famous and sometimes not so
famous battles in history. And out of those stories we have raised up the heroes
we have today. Let’s face it. As much as we talk about being peaceful, loving
and kind, there is just something is us that wants to glorify the strong, warrior
type we see in our movies and on TV. Take for example Arnold Swartzenegger,
Clint Eastwood, Steven Segal, and of course the Duke, John Wayne. We relate
to that warrior type, that Rambo personality. The person who, single handed
takes on an entire division of evil doers, freeing the prisoners and wiping out all
the bad guys. And we like to see ourselves that way as well. Strong, confident.
Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, ready to go into battle.
In his letter to the Ephesains, Paul describes a battle that takes place all
the time. It is a spiritual battle against what Paul describes as “..the
principalities, the powers and world rulers of this present darkness, the spiritual
hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places”. This battle takes places
constantly, minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day and year after
year. And we are on the front line of this battle. We are the soldiers that are
fighting in this war. We will be looking at this spiritual war that takes place and
what it means to us as soldiers in this war.
The first thing to look at are the soldiers in this war. On one side we have
Satan and his legions of demons. They are armed to the teeth with the weapons
of this spiritual warfare. Prepared to destroy everything in their path. And on the
other side we have those who are being attacked by this demonic army,
ourselves. Now we like to see ourselves like Arnold, brandishing 2 sub-machine
guns, blazing away, killing everything in sight and promising that “I’ll be back”.
Or perhaps we see ourselves as more of the Steven Segal type. Ruthless,
trained in every form of combat. Able to construct bombs from cooking oil,
baking soda and a microwave. Or maybe we are more like the Duke. Good old
John Wayne. Rallying the troops. Proclaiming “-----------------------”. That’s how
we like to see ourselves, but lets take a look at how the Bible describes us.
Psalm 100 verse 3 says “...we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”
Psalm 44 verse 11 and 22 says we are like sheep for slaughter. Mark 6:34 says
Jesus had compassion on the crowd because the were like sheep without a
shepherd. And in Luke 10:3 Jesus says “I am sending you out as lambs in the
midst of wolves”. Sheep, Lambs. That’s what the Bible says we are. Now being
described as a sheep or lamb isn’t exactly the greatest thing in the world. Sheep
are dumb. They are perhaps one of the dumbest animals on the earth. They
wander off, get into trouble, can fall into rivers and streams and drown and they
are completely defenseless. Throw a wolf, or other predatory animal into a
bunch of sheep and it’s basically a smorgasbord for that animal. Not exactly
how we want to see ourselves in this spiritual battle. We want to see ourselves
as strong, able to fight off any enemy, able to defend ourselves against any foe.
But we aren’t like that at all in this battle of the unseen world. We are sheep.
And as sheep we are totally defenseless. When Satan and his demons attack,
we have nothing to protect us. See we are sheep, lambs. And in 1 Peter 5:8
Satan is described as “...a hungry, roaring lion who prowls around looking for
someone to devour. Sheep and lions don’t mix.
So how are we going to fight this battle? How are we possible going to
defend ourselves against the attacks that Satan launches at us? Paul gives us
the answers in this passage of scripture. Paul says “....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 wiles of the devil. The Living Bible says, “put on all of God’s
armor so that you will be able to stand safe against all strategies and tricks of
Satan”. Open up your Bibles and look at this with me. Read along with me and
underline this. Verses 10 and 11 says be strong; be strong how? In ourselves, in
others, in our power? NO it says; “Be strong in the Lord “. And verse 11 says
“Put on the whole armor of........” help me out here.....God. Not our armor. Not
the armor of the world, but the armor of God. See, we have nothing to defend
ourselves against Satan and his demons. We are defenseless sheep. The
other thing I want you to read and underline are the words “Put On” in verse 11.
We have to literally “Put On” Gods armor. Clothes or armor that is left hanging
up in the closet or locker isn’t going to do anyone any good. When you get up in
the morning, do your clothes jump out of your dresser or closet and onto your
body? No! You have to put them on! You’d look pretty silly walking around
naked and telling everyone. “Well I waited and waited, but my clothes never got
up and slipped themselves on me.” We have to PUT ON the armor of God for
our spiritual bodies everyday, just like we have to put on our clothes for our
physical body everyday. When we put on God, put on Christ, put on the Holy
Spirit, we are still sheep, but now we’re sheep with attitude, now we’re sheep
who have the Lion of Judah with us, who has Christ’s strength, Christ’s
weapons, Christ’s armor. Turn to Romans 8 verse 36. Here Paul says “For your
sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep” Here again,
we are being called sheep, being slaughtered every day. But look at the next
verse. Verse 37 says “despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours
through Christ.” We cannot fight this battle by ourselves, to do so would mean
spiritual suicide. Satan would chop us to pieces with his lies, temptations and
tricks. This is an invisible battle folks. Verse 12 of our scripture in the Living
Bible reads this way “For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and
blood, but against persons without bodies---the evil rulers of the unseen world,
those mighty satanic beings and great evil princes of darkness who rule this
world; and against huge numbers of wicked spirits in the spirit world.” It’s hard
enough to fight the things we can see, let alone try and fight what we can’t see.
Do you want and idea of what we’re up against in our spiritual battle? The
soldiers that were fighting against? Just take a look at this verse that was just
read. This is how Paul describes our enemy. They’re not made of flesh and
blood; they are without bodies; they are the evil rulers of the unseen world. Take
note of that word ‘rulers’. They are in charge, they rule, they call the shots. They
are the evil princes of darkness. They are mighty satanic beings. They are
wicked spirits, and there are huge numbers of them. Not a pleasant picture is
it? That’s a scary scene, it’s enough to make the bravest of our super heroes
shake in their boots, let alone small, frail, defenseless sheep. This is what we’re
up against folks. This is what we have to battle against everyday. And on top of
what these armies have, they are smart, clever, cunning, tricky. See what they
do is look at how they can lie to us and make it look like the truth. They look at
where we are weak, they look at where they can attack without it even seeming
like it’s an attack. They lure us in to their traps, working on our emotions,
desires, and thoughts. Attacking us when we least expect it, when we’re down,
depressed, or sometimes even when we think we are strong. At times people
who are mature in their faith come under attack because they forget that they’re
sheep and rely on their own armor to protect them. I want everyone to repeat
after me. I am a sheep, I have wool for armor.
Our strength must come from the Lord’s mighty power within us. It is only
by using God’s strength, God’s power, God’s armor, that we can stand against
the attacks of our enemy. When Paul wrote this letter he was in a unique
situation. He was under arrest and chained or handcuffed to a Roman soldier.
He says in verse 20 “...for which I am an ambassador in chains”. This gave him
a great opportunity to view up close one of the greatest trained and armed
fighters in the world at that time. Paul was able to see up close and personal the
battle gear which a Roman soldier possessed. He then applied it in a “spiritual”
sense, with armor and weaponry that we must have to defend ourselves against
the devil. We must put on this armor or battle gear and know how to use it in
order to defeat the attacks of our enemy, otherwise we are in danger and will go
down in defeat. With this armor though, we can emerge victorious.
In the next 2 weeks we’re going to take a look at each piece of armor that
Paul describes in our scripture, the Belt of truth, the Breastplate of
righteousness, the boots of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and
the sword of the Spirit, or the word of God. We will examine each piece to
understand how to arm ourselves with this armor, how to “put it on” and how to
use it to defeat the attacks of our enemy. Remember, we are sheep, and we
must rely on God for our protection and strength. But with that strength and
power, we will be victorious.
