Ephesians 6:10-12 "The Battle"

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Truth for the Journey from Clifford Baptist Church, 635 Fletcher's Level Road in Amherst. Tonight begins a brand new Wednesday night Bible study series with Pastor Jeffrey Campbell entitled Battlegram. Tonight's scripture is Ephesians, Chapter 6, Verse 12. You're welcome to come to our 7pm Service or by livestream from our website [00:00:20] Speaker B: cliffordbaptist.org thank you for being here tonight. And I'm grateful that as we come together tonight, that we open the Word of God together. One of the things that is hard for a pastor to do, hard for me to do, is when you finish one thing, where do you go next, Right? And so we finished the sermon on the mount, 21 sermons through that, and I really did not know where to go next. I'll be honest with you. And as I prayed and sought the Lord this week, he just opened a door for a series that I believe will hit home. That's my prayer. And my prayer tonight is maybe it will even hit close to you where you are. You will understand we live in a wonderful area. Part of the blessing of living in Amherst county is just a short drive. 60 East. Well, you can be in Appomattox, Virginia. You can be standing on a Civil War battlefield. April 9, 1865. The Union General Ulysses S. Grant accepted the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Appomattox, Virginia. Some view this surrender as a symbolic ending of the Civil War because there were other smaller battles that ensued afterwards. But either it was the ending of the Civil War or it was the bringing together of the nation. Tonight, we don't have to take a spiritual field trip to be on the battlefield. And as I address people that I love, here's what I need you to realize. We're in a battle. We are in a battle. You wake up every day on the battlefield. And some days it may seem like we are losing ground or losing the battle. But in certain areas, the reality is this. Some Christians don't even realize they're even in a battle. Our spiritual lives serve as battleground. And many in one some words of a pastor treat instead of a battleground, they treat their spiritual life as a playground. You come and you do what you want to when you want to, and that's good enough for me. But the reality is this. We need to wake up. We need to realize that every single day there is a spiritual battle going on. And to put this in perspective, here's how I want to do that. Sunday morning, we baptized 12 people. You remember that? And little do they know that littlest one Satan seeks to devour, destroy, get off track. We think that's horrible, don't we? We can't wrap our minds around that Satan going after our children. That's exactly what's happening because we are on that battlefield. But here's what you also need to know on this battlefield. Victories have been won through the blood of Jesus Christ. And my prayer is this every day as we go to battle, that we cannot do it in our own strength and we don't do it in our own ways. The victory has been won and it's been won through the cross and through the empty tomb with Jesus Christ leading the way right now. What does this battle look like? Before I go any further, you may say, what is this series going to look like? It's going to start in Ephesians and it's going to go different places. We're going to talk about battles in the mind. We're going to be talking about battles with temptation. We. We're going to be talking about all of these battles that face every single one of us because we are on the battlefield. Before I say another word, let's pray. Father, tonight, Lord, hide me behind your cross. And Lord, I pray, Lord, that this stern warning will wake up your church. Lord, I pray that as we go through your word tonight, very, very, very familiar scripture, God, that you will show us what engagement in battle looks like. You will show us what the enemy looks like. And Lord, you will call us to action as we go to battle. Peel back the scales from our eyes as we enter the battle. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Ephesians, chapter number six is going to be home base for a couple of weeks as we begin this series. And tonight in particular, Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 12. I'm going to read all three of those verses and then we will kind of center ourselves on verse number 12 tonight. Ephesians 6, verse number 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. What does this battle look like? Tonight as we talk about the battle, what does it look like? Maybe you have looked at your own life before and you know something's going on. Maybe you have looked into your family, even at your kids or your husband or your wife, and said something's going on there and you can't put your finger on what it is. There's a lot of times in the church we do one or two things. We either blame the devil for everything or we don't blame him for anything. And both of them are wrong. Let me tell you this. The devil isn't always as guilty as we make him. But he doesn't get off scot free either. Tonight, the first word of the battle is this. Engagement. Engagement. What does engagement look like? My youngest son in his 10th grade year decided he wanted to wrestle. Now, at the time he had not hit his growth spurt. And on the wrestling team they had nobody to take the 95 pound class. I don't know what it was he was. I don't know that he made. It was 106. I'm sorry, it was 106. He made £100, but he had never wrestled before. He comes home and said, dad, I'm going to go out and be on the wrestling team. My buddies are doing it. Are you crazy? You're going to get beat up. Well, he decided that he was going to do it and away he went. And that first year of wrestling, I'll never forget his first match. He won it by the grace of God, let's just leave it at that. But he went on a tremendous losing streak after that first wrestling match. And quickly what he learned is this. The ones who had the techniques, the ones who knew the moves, the one that knew the timing, the ones that have years of experience, they could overcome so much. I too make that mistake at times. I walk into the ring thinking this, I've got it, I can handle this. I don't need anybody else's help. And what I quickly learn is I am way too immature and outmatched on this spiritual battlefield. I don't know what your approach to life is, but my prayer is this, that if we think that we can take care of it or we can solve it, or we can fix it, or we can defeat it, you will be defeated. You will lose that wrestling match. The last four years of ministry have shown me this. You cannot do it alone. You cannot do it in your own strength, and you cannot do it without the Lord Jesus Christ. You can do nothing so quickly. What's circling you right now? What's circling you? I'm not the only one that feels it or sees it or understands what the wrestling match looks like. You're going around and around trying to figure out a couple of things. What's my next move and who's behind It. And who is the enemy? Maybe some of you tonight are close to tapping out. Yes, I'm talking about wrestling. Or can I rephrase that? In the south, we call it wrastling, right? The Bible uses this term. Look, In Ephesians, chapter 6, verse number 12, it says this for we wrestle. That does not say, you might do it one day. That doesn't say, it may come your way. Here's what that means. You will fight a spiritual battle eventually. We wrestle. Now think of wrestling, and it is a perfect word to describe what happens. It is close combat, hand on hand, man to man, woman to woman. It is that kind of combat. And so that wrestling word is the correct word that is used here. And so as we see that Paul writes to the church saying that there is a wrestling match going on, we understand this, that it is not a boxing match. It is not a fist fight. It is not an arm wrestling match where brute strength wins. And it's also not wwe. That is fake, but it looks like it's the real thing. When you talk about the devil to some people, they say, that's not real. So some people think, I can do it in my own strength. And some people look at you and think, you're crazy. The devil doesn't exist. But here's the reality. When we think about engaging the enemy, it is not fake. It is real. It is combative. It is strategic. It is. And at the right time, Satan will take his shot. During this battle, we must look at how we engage with our enemy. And we know that we cannot win in our own strength. And we know that we cannot win this battle alone because the battle is not flesh and blood. Have you ever viewed your spiritual walk as a battle? Some of you have. And maybe some of you have not considered that some of us live our spiritual lives in moments of complacency instead of combat. Some of us lead our lives of convenience, not conflict. But many do not recognize who their opponent is and that they're even engaged in a spiritual battle. So as we enter this match and we engage the enemy, we need help. And our help is none other than Jesus Christ, our Lord. Listen to these verses. Psalm 46:1 says, the Lord is our refuge and strength, our ever present help in trouble. Philippians 4:13 says this, I can do all things through Christ, which Strengtheneth me. Psalm 28:7. The Lord is my strength and shield. My heart trusted in him, and I am helped. There is a battle that we wrestle not in our own strength, but in the power of an almighty God. We have someone our side. I don't know about you, I grew up watching wrestling. Don't hold that against me. But deep down I always wanted the good guys to win. And the bad guys always done crazy stuff. You know, they hid the chair underneath the ring, right? Or they had somebody else come out and knock them out. While the referee was turned away, I just jumped up and wanted to go through that tv, right? Here's what we need of the enemy. Doesn't fight fair, doesn't fight fair. But here's what we need to realize. We've got someone that as we wrestle, the enemy that's on our side, that's our tag team partner as we wrestle, that gives us that strength. So as we go into battle, we do so. We engage with the help of the Lord. Here's what you need to understand. Wrestling should not surprise you. The Bible says it's going to happen. You should expect it, you should prepare for it. And you need to lean on the Lord as you engage with the enemy. That engagement is wrestling with that enemy. Hand of hand. Combat. Close. The second word tonight after engagement is enemy. When you enter a battle, you must know who the enemy is. Some wars have been fought where you couldn't identify the enemy. And that is a hard war, hard battle to win the enemy. When we think about who the enemy is, we first must realize who the enemy is not. Look at verse number 12 again. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood. So as we see this, the enemy is not a physical one, it's a spiritual enemy. It's not someone that we can see. And though we want to wring somebody's neck or put our hands on somebody, we cannot put our hands on them. We may want to engage and I've got to be careful here with actual weapons to defeat this enemy. But listen, your enemy is not one another or somebody else physically. And this is where we get it wrong sometimes. Whatever you are going through, through your intel needs to tell you this. Who the enemy is. And the enemy is not flesh and blood. It's not somebody that you work with, that you live with, that's in your home or that's at your school. They're not the enemy. The enemy is not flesh and blood. Then who is it? Look at verse number 11. Paul writes, Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. I don't know if you write in your Bible or not. I do circle that word not to give the devil any credit, but that's who your enemy is, that's the enemy. So much can be said here. The meaning of that word is an accuser or slander, an adversary. The devil's sly approach leads some to believe that they aren't even in a battle. So he blinds us. You're not even fighting. You're not even in a wrestling match. You're not in a battle. You're not in a war. Everything's okay. You just keep doing what you're doing. That's his prerogative. That's the way that he works. But remember, it's no accident that Paul is using military language here to remind the reader that this battle is a fight and the devil is the enemy. Now remember Satan. The devil is a fallen angel. He is a created being. He is. He desired to be God, and he failed. And you can read about that in your Bible. But the reason I bring this to your attention is this, as a created being, he is not God. So he does not have God's character of being able to be everywhere and know everything at all times. Though he is powerful, he is not God. So we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but the Bible says against principalities and powers and rulers of darkness, of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places. The devil has an army and the devil has allies. And that's what we need to realize. I'm going to ask you to put your finger in Ephesians and jump over a couple of books to Colossians. And I just want to walk you through something that is written to those in the church in Colossae that describes principalities and powers. Colossians chapter number one, verse number 16. Listen to this verse. It says this. For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by him and for Him. Do you see that? Powers, principalities and powers are used there? It is the same reference that we get in Ephesians. And here's what you need to understand. God created all of it, but it was intended to be for his glory. Look at Colossians, chapter number two, verse number ten. Paul writes, and ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power. So that tells you this. The Lord is the head of them all. Here's a little homework assignment. Read from Colossians 2:10 to Colossians 2:15. Because I'm just going to read Colossians 2:15. It says this. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it. So not only did he create them, not only were they intended for his glory, but he has triumphed over the ones that have fallen away. And if you read those verses in between, you will see in verse number 14 that the only way that he did it is by the way of the cross. That's how he triumphed over them. And so those principalities and powers, the enemy is upset because the enemy, listen, church is already defeated. And he knows it. He knows it. He's on a short leash with a limited amount of a time, and he's out to destroy as much as and as many as he can until that time ends. That's the goal here. And so when you engage with the enemy, you're not engaging with a physical person, you're not engaging with flesh and blood. You're engaging with those principalities and powers and the darkness or the rulers of the darkness of the world and the spiritual wickedness in high places. But all of that is have all of them have been defeated. These allies hold different titles, but they seek to destroy the Christian by whatever means necessary. So demonic spirits, forces of evil, spiritual powers, and the unseen world are active. And they are enemies that are ready to engage and wrestle with those who call themselves believers. It's hard not to see your be able to see your enemy. But here's what you need to know. The enemy wants to wrestle with you. There's one more word tonight, and that word is exhortation. And what that means is Paul just gives some commands in these couple of verses that we need to do, and we're going to break them apart a little bit next week. But remember this, Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus. And you can write this reference down if you want to look at it. In Acts 19:19, in Ephesus, there was a war waging. There were people that were controlled by these demonic spirits. And as Paul was there ministering praise the Lord, that Christ was lifted up and people brought their books, their teachings of these spirits, and burnt them. So as Paul urges those in Ephesus whom he battled and whom they burned books, and he is encouraging them in three different areas of things that they need to do. The first thing is this. They need to be strong, be strong. That is an exhortation that Paul is writing and telling the believers in Ephesus that they need to do. Look at verse number 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. As we talked about Strength. Your strength is not in yourself. You cannot do it. So where does your strength come from? It comes from the Lord. That's where you need to lean into, and that's where you need to look to for your source of strength. So here's what I want to tell you. As we fight the enemy, I believe we need one another to help, but I also believe that we cannot do it without the Lord. Paul's exhortation shows us that we cannot win in our own strength. But we must know the one who can come in and engage in the battle with us. And his name is Jesus. There's a song that Phil Wickham wrote, and we have sung it before, but that little phrase at the end, oh, God, the battle belongs to you. And I just want to encourage you tonight, whatever that battle that you're fighting, you know something's going on, you know, maybe even the enemy is at work. Give that battle to the Lord, and you've got to be strong in the Lord. Give it to him and let him help you fight the enemy. The first words of exhortation, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. The second exhortation is found in verse number 11. Put on the whole armor of God. Y' all see that? Now, we're going to get into that next week. We're going to talk about the equipment that we need in this battle. Let me rephrase that. Next week is a night of worship. So we're going to take a break next week. It's going to be the week after. But we're going to talk about the equipment that we need for this battle. But we're told to put on that armor of God. And we're going to look at that in depth. But as you put it on, here's what you need to realize. Some people aren't even putting it on. My two teenage boys every night, my wife still has to tell them, brush your teeth. Now, she doesn't have to tell them that, per se, that they don't know to do that, but it's just a reminder. But there are times I just look at those boys and say, does your mom really still have to tell you to brush your teeth? Well, I read that. I read this exhortation the same way. We all have been at church for a while. We've heard about the armor and putting it on. Does Paul really need to tell the Ephesians, put on your spiritual armor? Let me ask you this church. Do I need to tell you to read your Bible and pray yes. Just as a reminder. I know many of you are doing it. I'm not doubting that. But there may be somebody in this room tonight that just needs that reminder. You need to just put on this armor. You're fighting a battle without the equipment that you can win with. And you'll never win it unless you put on the whole armor of God. That armor is a protection for yourself, and it is a protection as you engage the enemy. This equipment is vital for you to go on the. Not only be on the defensive, but go on the offensive as you fight the enemy. I will. I have a little note here that just circles the word all to make sure to put on every part of it. Put on every part of it the whole armor of God. That's the word you need to circle in is whole. We must put on all of the armor that the Lord talks about. It protects us against the evil one. There's a third exhortation, and that third exhortation is listed in verse number seven, but it's also used a few other places. Look at verse number 11. It says this. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. That word stand is where I'm going. Okay. And that is the exhortation. Look at verse number 13. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all to stand that exhortation to stand. And that word indicates this. You will face attacks. And as you face those attacks, you have the whole armor of God. You have the strength of the Lord with you. And you just need to face the battle. Face the enemy in the battle. That's what I'm trying to say. What does this mean? There's no retreat. There is no retreating. And as we think about this battle, we have the Lord on our side. We wrestle from a place of victory. Jesus has already won it through the blood on the cross and through the resurrection from the tomb, and through those battles as they go on. We are fighting a defeated foe. But we must stand in the strength of the Lord tonight. I don't know what your battle looks like, But as we face those things that come our way, as we face Satan, that tempts us tonight, maybe we need to enter a time of prayer, not only for what you're facing, but for what we're facing. I'd like to think that I could take you out to. To the town of Amherst, or I could carry you into Lynchburg. There Was a shooting in Lynchburg last night. I could take you down there and show you where that was. And I could tell you this is battleground right here. But here's what I want to tell you. Church tonight. This right here is the battleground. And I know that we have godly folks in here. Praise God for that. But Satan finds the cracks, and Satan is here. Don't think the battle happens only outside there. It happens here. Whether it's with me as your shepherd, whether it's with your families to. If he finds a crack in the people of God, oh, boy, watch out. What does that mean tonight? What is the takeaway for tonight? Here's the takeaway. You are in a battle, whether you realize it or not, you cannot win it in your own strength, with your own ideas. You need the Lord. And tonight, if you are facing life, facing whatever, without the Lord and leaning into that relationship, tonight, I want to encourage you. You will never win the battle without Jesus. You may put up a good fight. A good fight is not a. Winning is not winning the battle. You may go down swinging. That's not the goal. The goal is victory because Jesus has already won. What's your battle? What does it look like? The lines have been drawn. We know who the enemy is. What will we do as we face Satan himself? Tonight, I want to encourage you. Maybe you have something on your heart. And I normally do not do this on Wednesday night. If it's something so important that you need to pray about right now, I'll open this altar. You come up here and pray. I'm going to close us in prayer tonight. But whatever you are facing, know this, that your battle. Many battles are won on our knees. And we'll see that next week. Can we pray? Can we pray knowing who our enemy is, knowing the battle is here, and knowing Jesus can lead us to victory. Father, God, thank you for tonight, God, as we talk about spiritual warfare, God, we know it's here, Lord. Just this week, personally, Lord, I felt it. But also, Lord, I felt your reassuring hands, the strength of them leading, oh, God, tonight, as a church, we recognize that the battle is before us. We recognize as a church tonight that we cannot do it in and of our own strength. As a church tonight, we recognize. Oh, God, we need you. We need you in our church. We need you in our lives and in our families, God. We need you at our workplaces. Somebody might be feeling defeated tonight, God, I pray that you will just remind them who they belong to, who they have behind them, God, that you will raise up warriors for this battle Lord, tonight maybe there's somebody in this room that doesn't realize that faith is a spiritual thing. Spiritual battle. God, I pray that you will open their eyes to the unseen world that wages for their soul, for their testimony, for their future, for their family. God, I pray that you will protect this church Lord. That we will stand Lord in the truth of your word. That we'll fight knowing that you will give us the victory. Lord, this is not some makeup self help sermon tonight God, it's real and it's here. I feel it, I know it. I see it. God, help us defeat the enemy. In your strength I pray we make our prayer in Jesus name. Amen. [00:36:13] Speaker A: You've been listening to Truth for the Journey from Clifford Baptist Church. You're always welcome to visit Clifford Baptist Church for Sunday School at 9:45 worship at 11:00am and Wednesday evening worship at 7:00pm Join us again for Truth for the Journey.