Victory - Ephesians 6:10-17

We begin now the final section of Paul's letter to the Ephesians, walk in victory. Ephesians 6, beginning with verse 10 through the end of the book. Walk in victory. Here he is talking about the battles that we fight as Christians.

Now every Christian is a son of God. "As many as received him, Christ, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." Every Christian as a son is a servant. We've been called to serve the Lord Jesus. We serve the Lord Christ. We are also soldiers. Throughout the word of God, the people of God are pictured in a military fashion, soldiers. "Thou therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus," Paul wrote to Timothy. Talks about the soldier, every soldier that God has enlisted should be faithful to his commander. We are soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ because we have to fight a battle.

The Christian life is a life of blessings and burdens and battles. They're blessings. Ephesians 1:3, "He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly." And there are burdens. Every one of us has burdens that we carry, one kind of a burden or another. We bring our burdens to the Lord, he gives us the grace to carry on. And there are battles.

Now before we were saved, we were under the control of Satan. Ephesians 2:1-3 make it very clear that the unsaved man "walks according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." Now before I was saved, I was a child of disobedience. Now that I've been saved, I'm a child of God, and a new spirit dwells within my body, the Holy Spirit, the spirit of God. "What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which ye have of God?" And the Holy Spirit of God is the spirit of obedience. "For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

But the problem is, there's a conflict. My old nature wants to be disobedient. "For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." "The flesh profiteth nothing," says Jesus. The flesh wants to disobey and the spirit wants to obey. And so there's a conflict. And the devil takes advantage of this conflict by bringing all kinds of temptations and battles before us.

Now Paul is telling us here how to overcome the devil. We have three enemies, you know, the world, which is the external enemy, and the flesh, which is the internal enemy, and the devil, which is the infernal enemy. And the devil uses the world or the flesh to trip up the child of God. The devil came to Eve, "even sayeth God said that ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden." And he appealed to the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life, "ye should be as Gods." And Eve fell for it. And this is what plunged humanity into sin.

Now he tells us in verse 10, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might." Now we don't have any strength of our own. You remember that Peter boasted to the Lord and said, "though all shall forsake thee, I will not go with thee to prison into death." And then the Lord Jesus came in that garden scene and found Peter sleeping and he said, "Yeah, uh-huh, you're going to go with me to prison to death. The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak." Now we think the flesh is strong. One of the first lessons a new Christian learns is that he cannot trust himself. Paul in Philippians 3 says, "we have no confidence in the flesh." Now many people do. They have fleshly confidence, they are confident that they have the power and the strength to overcome the wicked one and they don't.

In verses 10 through 12, Paul tells us the enemy that we fight. "Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles, the strategy of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." He describes here Satan and his organization. Now many people smile at this and say, "Well, this is a fable from the Middle Ages. You certainly don't believe in a personal devil." Yes, I do. It was a personal devil who met Eve in the garden. It was a personal devil who maligned Job. It was a personal devil who met the Lord Jesus Christ after his baptism, tempted him in the wilderness. Peter knew something about the devil. This is why he wrote, "Be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary the devil goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he would devour." Satan is real. And Satan has under his control a vast organization of spiritual demonic beings that do his bidding. Let me recommend that you pick up a copy of The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, if you are interested in an up-to-date, modern investigation of how the devil works. There's quite a bit of humor in that book, but quite a bit of good practical spiritual information. Satan is at the head of a vast spiritual organization, the rulers of the darkness of this world. He has control of men's minds. The devilment that goeth on in this world has its inception in the heart of the wicked one. And Satan is a real adversary.

Now you and I are not strong enough to cope with him. We may think that we are. But we're not. The flesh is weak. And so we need the strength of the Lord and we need the power of his might. Now we have this power available. Back in Ephesians 3:20-21, Paul had said, "Now unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us." This is the power of the Holy Spirit. John tells us in his first epistle, 1 John 4:4, "greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world." Greater is the Holy Spirit than Satan. So the strong one, Satan, is overcome by the stronger one, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have his power at our disposal.

Now we not only need power for fighting, we need protection. And we need here what he talks about, "the whole armor of God." You see in Ephesians 4:27, we are warned, "Neither give place to the devil." You see, Satan looks for some unprotected spot. He looks for the Achilles heel, he looks for that one point of weakness. And so Paul tells us that God has provided for us armor, spiritual protection. Now we must put on the whole armor of God, not just one or two parts. The whole armor of God, this equipment that God has supplied must be worn if we're going to have victory.

"Wherefore," verse 13, "take unto you the whole armor of God," verse 11, he said, "the whole armor of God." All of it. You see, one of the big weaknesses in the Christian life is we're strong in one or two things and we're weak in something else. In fact, sometimes the very point of our strength becomes our weakness. Peter's strongest point was his courage, that's where he failed. Moses' strongest point was his meekness, that's where he failed, lost his temper. And many times what we think is our strength, really is our weakness. Paul said, "When I am weak, then I am strong." "Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day." Now the days are evil. Back in Ephesians 5:16, he told us this, "Redeeming the time because the days are evil." So here we are, facing an evil enemy in an evil day. And what are we to do? We are to withstand and "having done all to stand." He says, claim your territory. Win the victory. Stand. In the power of the Lord.

Now if we had to go out and fight our spiritual battles in our own strength, I fear we would all fail and fail miserably. If salvation means I have to keep myself saved and keep myself protected, then I wouldn't want to be saved. No, salvation means God saves me, and then God protects me, and God makes available to me the equipment that I need to have the victory.

Now Paul describes for us the pieces of equipment that we need to fight. Let's notice what these pieces are. Verse 14, "Stand therefore, having your loins gird about with truth." Now the loins are the fulcrum of the body. The loins balance the rest of the body. If you're going to walk or run or stand or fight, your loins must be in good shape. He says your loins must be controlled by truth. Truth. Any lie that gets into my life, any lie that I permit in my life, any hypocrisy or deceit is opening the way to the devil. My loins are gird about with truth. Now Jesus says, "I am the truth." "Your word is truth."

"Having on the breastplate of righteousness." Now of course, this covers the heart. We're to have a clean heart. The righteousness of a godly life. Now when you and I were saved, God gave to us the robe of righteousness, that's salvation. Here's the breastplate of righteousness, that's protection.

"And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." Now if you don't wear the right kind of shoes, you can't stand or walk or fight. Now our feet are to be clean feet. John 13, Jesus talks about the washing of the feet. Clean feet. And they are to be feet that are wearing the gospel, walking in the gospel. Now not walking on it. Hebrews tells us about people who tread under foot the blood of the covenant, these people who despise the word of God. Now not walking on it, walking in it. Our walk controlled by the gospel.

"And above all, taking the shield of faith." Now of course, this is "the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith." "Taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one." You see, Satan throws darts at us. You're praying and strange thoughts come to your mind, or you're in church and wicked thoughts come. This is Satan throwing darts at you. By faith, we put them out.

"The helmet of salvation" that controls the head. And then "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." We'll go into these in greater detail in a future lesson. But may I say this to you, you are a Christian soldier. Are you wearing the armor? By faith, have you equipped yourself with these spiritual pieces of armor to protect you in this evil day? I trust that you have. For if you do, you'll be able to withstand the wicked one.

Shall we pray? We thank thee, our Father, that we can be Christian soldiers to the glory of Jesus Christ. Help us by faith to equip ourselves with the word of God and prayer, and to have victory over Satan in whose name we pray. Amen.