SERMON OUTLINE

The Full Armor of God    Ephesians 6.10-20

Stand Against the Enemy    Ephesians 6.11-13

Introduction

Our new life in Christ will be attacked by the Devil and his demons. We are to resist and to stand in Christ.

Not Flesh and Blood

-Spirit beings working through flesh and blood.

1) The Devil: fallen angel of great power, beauty and wisdom, cast down to earth and taking 1/3 of the angels with him. Isaiah 14.12-15; Ezekiel 28.12-19

-Prince, god, ruler of this world. Liar, murderer, deceiver, accuser, false teacher. 2 Corinthians 4.4; John 12.31; Ephesians 2.2; John 8.44; Revelation 12.9-10; 2 Corinthians 11.13-15; 1 John 5.19; 2.15-17; Revelation 12.7-9

-Methodical in his deceptions. 6000+ years of experience, supernatural power, intelligent, powerful demons, the world and the flesh at his service. We need to know our enemies methods. Ephesians 4.27; 2 Corinthians 2.11; 11.3

2) His Demons: fallen angels of various power

-Rulers/Principalities. Regional rulers. Daniel 10.12-14 Christ has won the victory over them. Romans 8.38; Ephesians 1.21; Colossians 2.10,15; 1 Peter 3.22; Jude 8-10; Acts 19.13-20

-Authorities/Powers. Demonic influence over worldviews, culture, values, religions, and media that capture people for the Devil. Organized systematic attack against God over every area of life.

-Worldwide rulers. A universal conspiracy to destroy God’s creation through sin. Ephesians 2.2; 2 Corinthians 4.4; 1 John 5.19

-Spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. Spiritual, evil and heavenly enemy.

Two Metaphors and Two Goals

-Wrestling and War. Against used six times to emphasize a lethal conflict with evil.

-Resist and Stand. Both are offensive and defensive. 1 Peter 5.9; James 4.7; Matthew 10.22; 2 Corinthians 4.9

Conclusion

We can only resist and stand in the strength of Christ and by putting on Christ (full armor of God). Let us be young men and young women for Christ. 1 John 2.12-14

I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4.7-8)

SERMON NOTES

The Full Armor of God(1)            Stand Against the Enemy      Ephesians 6.10-20

-For the next three weeks we are going to study these 10 verses together. Today I want to tell you about our enemy the Devil and his kingdom, and how we as Christians are to resist and stand against the Devil and his kingdom. Next week we will study our strength in Christ and our responsibility to put on the whole armor of God. Then in our last week we will study the 7 pieces of God’s armor.

-In chapters 4, 5 and the first part of chapter 6, Paul has been describing the unity, harmony, holiness, and love of the Spirit filled Church, the Spirit filled Christian, and Spirit filled relationships. Here are God’s people, God’s Church, and the beginning of the kingdom of God on earth living out their new life in Christ. As Paul closes his letter to the Ephesian church he wants them to understand that this new life in Christ is going to be attacked by the Devil and his demons. Individual Christians and the Church, God God’s work and God’s truth, will all be attacked by the Devil. As God’s people we are in a struggle with the Devil and his demons, with darkness and evil. Everyone on earth, whether they accept it or not, is part of an all out war between God and the Devil, a war that will continue until the day when Jesus returns to destroy His enemies and fully establishes His kingdom on earth. As Christians we are called to be strong in Jesus Christ, to put on the full armor of God, to resist the Devil and his demons, and the evil and darkness of his kingdom, so that we are found standing after all the attacks have taken place.

-Standing means that through all the hardships and trials we encounter, in the defense and advancement of the kingdom of God, we continue to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and that we belong exclusively to God. Standing means that the Church is holy and faithful to God’s Word right to the end. To stand means that we will endure conflict, suffering, loss, casualties, and that we will also advance the kingdom of God, and in the end gain eternal life and the Glory to God.

–Job is a powerful illustration of the Christian caught in the conflict between God and the Devil. Job suffered greatly without knowing why and yet was willing and able to stand to the end and bring Glory to God. To stand in the conflict for God and against the Devil is yet another sign that we truly have a new life in Christ.

-Our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the Devil and the kingdom of his evil demons. The Devil and his demons are spirit beings, not flesh and blood, but they work their darkness and evil through organizations, governments, cultures, religions, the media and individual people. Our enemy is not the people and the organizations that are in darkness and that work evil against us. Our enemy is the Devil and the demons who spread lies, false teaching, influence and lead and provide for these organizations and cultures and people. Because the Devil and his demons are against us we need the strength of Jesus Christ in the conflict, and the weapon of prayer, and the truth of the Word of God to resist and to stand.

-Our enemy is the Devil. The Devil was created in heaven as Lucifer, which means light bearer. He was one of God’s great and magnificent angels, an angel of radiant beauty and immense wisdom, the guardian of God’s Glory, likely equal in authority and splendor to Michael the archangel. (Isaiah 14.12-15; Ezekiel 28.12-19) In pride Lucifer wanted to replace God and rebelled against God and was cast out of heaven by God, taking 1/3 of the angels with him. Lucifer made the earth his new domain. The conflict that began in heaven is now upon the earth. Since his fall from heaven the Devil has attacked the character of God and the people of God who are made in the image of God. In his fury and envy the Devil seeks to take the people of God to hell with him, and seeks to destroy the purpose and order of God’s institutions of family, government, church, and God’s nation Israel. The Devil also seeks to undermine and eliminate the Word of God in any way he can.

-The Bible calls the Devil the prince and the god of this world, the ruler of this world, the father of lies, a murderer, a deceiver, and the accuser of the brethren. (2 Corinthians 4.4; John 12.31; Ephesians 2.2; John 8.44; Revelation 12.9-10) The Devil is also able to disguise himself as an angel of light. The Devil also has control over this world and the powers and wealth and people in it, except for those who belong to God through Jesus Christ and what is under their authority. (2 Corinthians 11.13-15; 1 John 5.19; 2.15-17; Revelation 12.7-9) The Devil has control of the world systems and is able to tempt us through the flesh that is still part of our nature. We have a formidable enemy.

-In verse 11 we are commanded to put on the whole armor of God so that we can stand against the schemes of the Devil. The Greek word here is methodia and means methodical in deception and trickery. The Devil is no willy-nilly opponent. He is an intelligent, experienced, expert, skillful strategist that knows exactly how to bring people down and enslave them. The Devil has many varied tactics. He can bully, accuse, lie, do counterfeit miracles, make promises, provide false religion, capture through the fear of death, and deceive through materialism and positions of power and status. He knows our weaknesses and how to use lust, and pride, and self-pity, fear, and greed. He knows how to trip us up and make us fall into sin, darkness, evil, depression, self-pity, desire, hate, and fear. The Devil has 6,000+ years of experience, supernatural power, immense intelligence, powerful demons, and the world and the flesh, at his service. We could never stand in battle against the Devil. That is why this battle can only be won in the strength of Christ and by putting on Christ each day, which is what the armor of God describes. Paul warns us in 4.27 not to give the Devil a foothold and in Corinthians that we should not be ignorant of the Devil’s evil schemes. (Ephesians 4.27; 2 Corinthians 2.11; 11.3)

-Paul further describes our enemy in verse 12 using four different words.

1) Rulers/Principalities. The word means “the first place”. These are powerful demons with regional areas of responsibility given to them by the Devil. We have an example of one of these rulers in Daniel 10.12-14. [Read]

-God’s answer to Daniel’s prayer was hindered by the ruling angel over Persia and Michael an angel of equal power had to come and help the angel deliver God’s message to Daniel. It is interesting to see in the book of Daniel that the change of government from Persia to Greece is the result of a change in the regional demonic ruler over that area.

-In Romans 8.38 we are assured that as powerful as these demonic rulers are they cannot separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 1.21 teaches us that the resurrected Christ has authority over these rulers and all other angelic and demonic powers. And Colossians 2.10,15 teaches us that Christ is the head over every angelic power and in the cross Christ has disarmed and publicly exposed all of these demonic powers. In Christ we are not to fear these demonic powers. 1 Peter 3.22, says, “Jesus has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand – with angels, authorities and powers in submission to Him”. In Christ we have the victory. We are to respect the Devil and his demons and we are not to make fun of them, but we are not to fear them. We are to confidently move forward in Christ to claim God’s kingdom from the rule of darkness. (Jude 8-10; Acts 19.13-20)

2) Authorities/Powers. Another description of leading demonic powers. Here the focus is more on demonic influence over worldviews, culture, values, religions, and media that capture people for the Devil. I imagine the demonic kingdom organized into a multitude of departments with demons over the areas of music, clothing, movies, gambling, pornography, defaming the Bible, law, philosophy, education, government, economy, united nations, etc… with the aim of every department being to defile God and God’s people and to capture people for an eternity in hell. I imagine the demon authority in charge of clothing introducing his yearly fashions to dishonor God by degrading those made in the image of God, while the world unknowingly follows along. Or the demon authority in charge of movies developing new plots to undermine godly values to attack the Glory and the Majesty of God and direct mankind toward the flesh and toward hell. The world around us is the product of the evil, organized, ongoing, slow and steady methodical, strategy of the Devil and his demons to oppose all that honors God. We need to be just as methodical in the pursuit of righteousness and truth and the building of the kingdom of God. Our King has orders for us to follow. God too has a methodical plan to build His Church and the gates of hell will not be able to stand against God if we are obedient to Him.

3) The powers of this dark world/ the rulers of the darkness of this world/ world forces of this darkness. The Greek word used here joins two Greek words, world and power into one word which means “worldwide rulers”. The Devil and his demons have a world influence and domination. The NT states the obvious when it says that the Devil is the god of this world – the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the god of this age, the whole world is under the power of the evil one. (Ephesians 2.2; 2 Corinthians 4.4; 1 John 5.19) The Devil and his demons influence how people think and what people do, the media, governments, organizations, religion, and people of influence. If you are prone to looking for conspiracies than here is the greatest conspiracy of all. Here is a universal conspiracy to destroy God’s creation through sin. The Devil rules the whole world, except for those who call Jesus Christ Lord and obey Him and are free from the slavery of sin.

-As Christians we are to pray and to work to bring people under the influence of the Gospel so that God can change them so that they can become influences of light in a dark and evil world. I pray you realize a little more how important it is to stand for Christ and to turn away from sin?

4) Spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. In summary Paul tells us again that we are in conflict with spiritual forces, evil and dark forces, heavenly forces that are more than flesh and blood.

-We cannot stand against these forces on our own. We must be strong in Christ and daily put on Christ, who is the armor of God.

-Paul uses two metaphors in these verses. The word translated as “struggle” is the Greek word for wrestling. Paul describes our struggle as hand to hand combat where our opponent is seeking to throw us down to the mat in order to hold his hand on our necks. Three times in these verses we are commanded to stand. We are not to allow ourselves to be thrown down by our opponent. We are to fight to remain standing. As verse 13 says, “And having done everything to stand”.

-The other metaphor is war. Dressed in full armor we are part of a universal war. This war is not just a wrestling match but a battle that is to be fought unto death. Paul uses the word “against” six times in verses 11 and 12. The repetition of the word against in describing the demonic forces we face was not necessary. Connecting all those words with “and” would have been sufficient. But Paul repeated “against” to emphasize the seriousness of our warfare with the Devil and his demons. The attack of the Devil against us is strong. Our attack against the Devil’s kingdom is relentless. That is why we need to be strong in the Lord and to put on the full armor of God every day.

-I went paint balling a couple of years back. For me it was not fun but terrifying. The reason it was terrifying was because I could not help imagining myself on patrol in Afghanistan and suddenly without warning being killed by others, shot dead on the spot. I was just part of a game. My paint ball experience was a mere wrestling match. But our war with the Devil and his demons is lethal. Not only is it lethal but it is eternal in its consequences as well. Lives are at eternal risk all around us. The Devil is out to seriously take as many as he can to hell with him. Our warfare is for real.

-We are given two goals in this spiritual war. We are to continually resist the Devil and we are to stand. The Greek word for resist is the word same word used for stand with the prefix against in front of it. Resist is to stand against the Devil and his demons, their darkness and evil, their influences, lies, sin and wicked works. Peter and James encourage us to resist the Devil and he will flee from us. (1 Peter 5.9; James 4.7)

-We are also to stand. To stand against the Devil is both defensive and offensive. There are times when we need to stand in one spot and defend what belongs to God, to determine to be holy and to honor God by our obedience, to hold what we already have. At other times we need to move forward against the kingdom of darkness. We do this when we share the Gospel with others, when we give to missions, when we pray to advance God’s kingdom. One small way to stand against evil offensively today is to send a message to the government of Canada through this petition to change the law and make the possession of child pornography a crime. Sign the petition and make a stand for righteousness.

-Whether in defense or offense we are to stand against the Devil and his demons. In Matthew 10.22 Jesus says, “All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved”. Paul says you may be knocked down in the fight but you are not destroyed, so get back up and continue to stand. (2 Corinthians 4.9) If you fail and fall 85 times, then get up 86 times and keep on standing. Don’t give up the fight.

-We stand by keeping our own souls under the Lord Jesus Christ to bring Glory to God. We stand by working to expand the kingdom of God in the souls of others to the Glory of God. We are to strengthen other believers so that we can stand together in the fellowship of the church against the schemes of the Devil. All to the Glory of God.

-In 1 John 2, John describes three levels of Christian maturity. Children who know their sins are forgiven and know God as their Father. They have just come into the faith and know they are forgiven and going to heaven, and that they can have a personal relationship with God. Then we have the young men. They know the Word of God and the Word of God lives in them through obedience, and they overcome the evil one. Fathers know God intimately through years of fellowship with Him.

-We all need to get beyond the child stage of our Christian life to the young man stage by knowing and obeying the Word of God so we can stand against the Devil and his demons and his deceiving methods. In Ephesians 4.14, Paul tells us that children can easily be tossed around, like a small raft on large waves, if they do not know the Word of God. We need to know the truth of God’s Word to stand in the struggle against the Devil and his demons and the evil of this world. To take the Christian life seriously you must study the Word of God and know who you are in Christ.

-We will only stand if we are strong in the Lord and if we put on the Lord Jesus Christ which is what the armor of God is all about. Our greatest assets for standing are prayer and the Word of God, so get strong in both of those areas. Become young men and young women in the faith and do not remain unstable children. May we end our days as fathers and mothers in the faith, solid, wise, at rest in a deep relationship with God, full of fruit and of great value to the Church. But the way to being fathers and mothers in the faith is by becoming young men and women in the faith first through study and obedience to the Word of God.

-When Paul was about to die his confession was, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4.7-8)