September 29, 2021
Author: Pastor Gordon Cook
September 29, 2021
“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. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having
put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet,
having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all
circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish
all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of
salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,
praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To
that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all
the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening
my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an
ambassador in chains that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to
speak.”
Ephesians 6:10-20
This is a picture of the church. The New Testament has at least five
major pictures: the family, the temple, the bride, the body and the
armor of God. This is the most aggressive picture of the church. The
church must fight. There is no easy Christianity. I don’t believe this
passage was written to discourage us or to impress us, but certainly to
help us face life realistically. Also to remind us that we are fighting a
war that we cannot lose. I think that is the point. Paul is ending
Ephesians on a triumphant note. He starts off reminding us that we have
God on our side, we are not fighting this battle on our own. We fight
together as a church and we fight with a triune God on our side.
Notice how that is stressed in verse 10, “Be strong in the Lord and
in the strength of his might.” We have that wonderful hymn by Luther, A
Mighty Fortress is our God. I wonder if Luther also had this particular
portion of scripture in mind. I know that he had Psalm 46 in mind
because that is quoted in terms of what he says, but stanza two of that
great hymn, “Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be
losing,” that ties into Ephesians 6. Then stanza three, “Though this
world with devils filled.” Do you ever think of that? That also ties
into Ephesians 6. Not just the devil himself but he has these
principalities and powers or demonic forces. The devil is not
omnipresent, he is not God. At times it seems he can be everywhere
present. He has an army and can marshal out forces almost anywhere at
anytime and anyplace. What gets stressed here is that God has given us
all the armor we need in terms of fighting against these enemies.
We have the armor of God. He specifies here that we may “stand
against the schemes of the devil.” He lets us know something about the
devil. He is a schemer, he is a deceiver, he often tries to trick us and
manipulate us. Then the apostle gives a description of the armor. Here
is where there is some debate on how many pieces there are. There are at
least six pieces of armor. The shield of faith, the sword of the
spirit, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, etc.
Then you go to the very back end and notice what he mentions, prayer. He
gives something of an expansion in verse 18. Now here is the question,
“Is that simply another weapon?” I think you could argue it is. We often
hear of the weapon of prayer. It could be the seventh piece of armor,
but I am not convinced that it is.
I think in all likelihood here is the point he is trying to make, all
the other pieces of equipment are useless without prayer. Or you can’t
use them effectively without prayer. Prayer is the critical component of
our warfare. When it comes to fighting this war, you cannot effectively
use the other pieces of armor unless you are praying. You can’t use the
sword effectively unless you are praying. You can’t use the shield
effectively unless you are praying. Listen to Dr. Joel Beeke, “This
explains that prayer is critical because each piece of Christian armor
is useless without it. Prayer is like oil. Just as any part of an engine
is useless without oil, so every part of Christian warfare is vain
without prayer. Fighting Satan without prayer is like David fighting
Goliath in Saul’s armor; the armor doesn’t fit and it is ineffective
against the blows of the enemy.”
I would like to ask you, how many battles do we lose and how many wounds do we have because we have not prayed?
Notice the Apostle Paul gets very specific about prayer and he asks
for prayer in verse 19. He asks that he would have them pray for him
that he might preach the word of God faithfully, boldly, you could even
translate it plainly. I want to preach the Word the way the Word of God
is, I want to preach it plainly. I don’t want to preach it in a cowardly
fashion, not timidly, not reluctantly, but boldly or plainly. That is
certainly what we need today, plain bold preaching.
I received an email this past week from a brother who is asking about
Grace Baptist Church. Here is what he said, “Good day. Four days ago I
was exposed to the doctrines of grace in the vein of R.C. Sproul, John
MacArthur, James White, Alistair Begg, and Paul Washer. I am looking for
a church that truly preaches from the Word, who follows orthodox
Christianity and recognizes the five solos of Scripture, preach the Word
and what it actually says without flinching.” What does he want? What
is he looking for? Bold preaching. We should be thankful for bold, plain
preaching and that is what we heard this past Sunday. We need to pray
for this kind of preaching and make good use of prayer as we put on the
whole armor of God.
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