1/14/18 – Eph
6:11-12, Angelic Conflict, Pt. 4
The Enemy, Pt. 1.
Lesson #18-006
Pastor/Teacher,
Jim Rickard
Grace
Fellowship Church
Before we begin, if you are a believer in the
Lord Jesus Christ, (If You have - Trusted in Him for Eternal Life), it is
important to prepare yourself to: Take-in God’s Word and/or Participate in a
Communion Service, so take a moment to name, cite, or acknowledge your sins
privately, directly to God the Father. This will assure that you are in
fellowship with God the Father & the Holy Spirit’s convicting ministry will
then be able to teach you as the Holy Spirit is the real teacher.
1 John 1:9 says— “If we confess [simply name, cite,
or acknowledge to God the Father] our
sins [known sins], He is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins [known sins] and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [all unknown &
forgotten sins].”
For those of you who have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as
your Lord & Savior, please see: The Salvation
Message @ the end of this document.
2 Pet 3:9, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some
count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to
perish but for all to come to repentance.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Stand
in Warfare – Eph 6:10-20.
Eph
6:11-12; Isa 59:17; 1 Chron 12:18; 2 Chron 24:20; Gal 3:27; 1 Peter 4:1; Rom
6:13; 13:12; 2 Cor 6:1-10; 10:3-5; 1 Thes 5:8
Outline of Eph 6 :10-24
1. The Empowerment, vs. 10.
2. The Enemy, vs. 11-12.
3. The Equipment, vs. 13-17.
4. The Energy, vs. 18-20.
5. The Encouragement, vs. 21-24.
2. The
Enemy, vs. 11-12.
This verse continues the exhortation to “be strong in the Lord,” and then
identifies the enemy of our warfare.
Vs. 11
Eph 6:11, “Put on the
full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes
of the devil.”
The exhortation is to “put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against.”
Then we are given the identification of our enemy, “the schemes of the devil.”
By putting on the whole armor God has provided,
believers are able to stand victoriously in the tactical battles of the Angelic
Conflict. This exhortation is the means by which we “become and remain strong in the Lord.” And remember, although the strategic
victory is won in Christ, believers must still defend the position that Christ
has won for them against the last desperate attacks of the devil and his malevolent
allies.
Some of this imagery may be inspired by Isaiah, Isa 59:17; 11:4-5; 52:7.
Isa 59:17, “And He (Jesus Christ) put on righteousness like
a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; and He put on garments of
vengeance for clothing, and wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.”
We begin with the command, “put on” is the Aorist, Middle, Imperative of ENDUO, ἐνδύω that means, “dress,
clothe oneself, put on.” It is also used in vs. 14. The Constative Aorist tense views the entirety of the
action of “putting on” the armor of God from salvation to spiritual adulthood.
The Reflexive Middle voice tells us that the believer is responsible for
this putting on. Therefore, “putting on for one’s self.” The Imperative mood
is for a command, once again. This time we are commanded to “put on” God’s armor. So, this is personally
accepting and appropriating the defensive armor that is already yours in Christ.
In the LXX, this word was used to translate the
Hebrew LAVESH of the same meaning, and is used in 1 Chron 12:18; 2 Chron 24:20, for the Holy Spirit coming upon
someone to empower them.
1 Chron 12:18, “Then the
Spirit came upon Amasai, who was the chief of the thirty, …”
2 Chron 24:20, “Then the
Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest…”
As you know, the indwelling and filling of the
Holy Spirit was not universal to all believers of the OT. But occasionally and
many times temporally, the empowerment of the Holy Spirit would come upon
someone to perform certain tasks for God. Because of the Greek word ENDUO being
used in the LXX for this OT empowerment, in theology we call this the
“enduement” of the Holy Spirit. But now, during the Church age, all believers
are permanently indwelt by God the Holy Spirit from the day of their
regeneration, Rom 8:11, and all
believers have the opportunity to be filled with God the Holy Spirit, Eph 5:18, to strengthen and empower
them to walk inside the plan of God for their lives. This filling of the Holy
Spirit is accomplished as a result of applying 1 John 1:9 post salvation. Therefore, the command to “put on” the armor of God includes the
filling of God the Holy Spirit who empowers us to wield that armor of God, so
that we are able to stand firm in warfare during the Angelic Conflict.
In the NT, ENDUO is also used for being “clothed”
with Christ, Gal 3:27, “For all
of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
This Baptism is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Acts 1:5; Eph 4:5. This tells us that
we are also indwelt by the Lord Jesus Christ at the moment of our regeneration
/ salvation. Therefore, in our passage, it combines both the Spirit and Son of
God as we are commanded to, “put on the
full armor of God.” This is part of the DUNAMIS, KRATOS, and ISCHUS of vs. 10, along with the Word of God /
Bible Doctrine resident within your soul, Heb
4:12.
Earlier in Eph
4:24, Paul said that believers must, “put
on the new nature, created in God’s image, in righteousness, holiness, and
truth,” cf. 5:9. He also said
that we should imitate the Messiah, Eph
4:32, and God, Eph 5:1, in
showing forgiveness and love to one another. Now he depicts this imitation of
God in terms of putting on the armament of God to fight the daily battles
inside the war of the Angelic Conflict that has already been won by Christ. It
means to be identified with Christ and to fight with His strength, displaying
His character. Remember, the critical battle has already been won! There is now
just a mop-up operation going on. Christ is Lord, and we are in Him.
The thing we are to “put on” in this verse is given
generally in the words, “the full armor
of God.” It begins with the Accusative of HO PANOPLIA, πανοπλία that
means, “full armor or complete armor.” In classical Greek, PANOPLIA is used for the “complete
armor” used by heavily armed infantry, including both offensive and defensive
weapons. In the NT, it is used for the spiritual weapons supplied by God to the
believer for overcoming the temptations of the devil. It is used only here, and
in vs. 13, as well as Luke 11:22.
It is a compound word from PAS, (PAN), “all or
every,” and the verb HOPLIZO that means, “to arm, to arm oneself with, or
equip,” cf. 1 Peter 4:1, and the
noun HOPLON that means, “tool, instrument, or weapon,” John 18:3; Rom 6:13; 13:12; 2 Cor 6:7; 10:4. Read 2 Cor 6:1-10.
1 Peter 4:1,
“Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves (HOPLIZO) also with the same purpose, because he who
has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.”
Rom 6:13, “And do not go
on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of
unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead,
and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”
Rom 13:12, “The night is
almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of
darkness and put on the armor of light.”
2 Cor 10:3-5, “For though
we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4for the
weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for
the destruction of fortresses. 5We are destroying speculations
and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are
taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”
Cf. 1 Thes 5:8, “But since we are of the
day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a
helmet, the hope of salvation.”
Our implements of war are mighty, because they are
supplied by God. With them, as Paul did, we can pull down, overpower, conquer,
and destroy demonic spiritual strongholds. Such fortresses are prisons for the
minds of men. And since the gods of this world guard the bars that hold them,
only spiritual weapons more effective than theirs can set their captives free.
That is why we need to put on this armor for
ourselves first, so that we are overcomers in this life, and secondly for our
unbelieving neighbors, to free them from the enslavement of the enemy; sin, the
world, and Satan.
And, we are to put on the “whole armor.” We
are not to be partly armed with what God has appointed, and partly with such
weapons as men use; nor are we only to put on a part of the armor, but the whole armor of God. A man
needs all the armor of God if he is to fight the battles of the Lord. No
opening at the head, the feet, the heart, the belly, the eye, the ear, or the
tongue is to be given to Satan. Yet, if he lacks one of the weapons which God
has appointed, defeat may be the consequence.
In Luke 11,
when the Pharisees accused Jesus of casting out demons in the name of
Beelzebul, He rebuked them, yet He also gave us insight to what happens when someone
does not have the power of God working within their soul.
Luke 11:22, “But when
someone stronger (Satan) than he attacks him and overpowers him, he (Satan) takes away from him
all his armor on which he had relied, and distributes his plunder.”
Jesus went on to say in Luke 11:23, “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he
who does not gather with Me, scatters.”
The armor that we are to put on is not of our own
or of the world, but that “of God,”
or belonging to God, HO THEOS in the Genitive Singular. The unbeliever who does
not receive the armor of God is lacking in this warfare and is defeated by it.
So too will the believer be, who does not apply the armor that God in grace has
given him to wield.
Therefore, Paul takes PANOPLIA from military
speech, and lists six items of equipment, i.e., girdle, breastplate, shoes,
shield, helmet, and sword. He has in view the actual equipment of the Roman
soldier along with OT models. Since the enemy is spiritual, the whole PANOPLIA of God is needed. In
repudiation to the ancient pagan gods, the background of this armor is a mythological
one of God giving His own equipment, but the concept is real and spiritualized
for us in this truth. Also in an ethical context, the apostle is describing a
religious and moral battle, the Angelic Conflict. The weapons, however, are not
moral qualities but Divine realities. The believer can triumph in this Angelic
Conflict only through the Divine power of our Lord; the power of His might.
~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A
PERSONAL NOTE FOR YOU
John 6:47 says: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who
believes in Me [Jesus Christ] has everlasting life.”
Notice again what John
6:47 says, “he who believes in Me [Jesus Christ] has everlasting life.” It doesn’t say, “will have;” it says,
“has.” Therefore, the very moment you believe Jesus Christ’s promise of
everlasting life, you have it, and it can never be lost or taken away from you [John 10:28-29]. Furthermore, the gift
of everlasting life [also called eternal life in Scripture] is available to
every human being; there are absolutely no exceptions.
John 3:14-18
says: “And as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in
Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be
saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is
condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God.”
Eph 2:8-9, “For
by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift
of God: 9 Not of
works, lest any man should boast.”
If
you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I am here to tell
you that Jesus loves you. He loves you so much that He gave His life for you.
God the Father also loves you. He loves you so much that He gave His only Son
for you by sending Him to the Cross. At the Cross Jesus died in your place.
Taking upon Himself all of your sins and all of my sins. He was judged for our
sins and paid the price for our sins. Therefore, our sins will never be held
against us.
Right
where you are, you now have the opportunity to make the greatest decision in
your life. To accept the free gift of salvation and eternal life by truly
believing that Jesus Christ died for your sins and was raised on the third day
as the proof of the promise of eternal life. So right now, you can pause and
reflect on what Christ has done for you and say to the Father:
"Yes
Father, I believe that Your Son, Jesus Christ,
died on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins."
If you have done that, I Welcome You to the Eternal
Family of God !!!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~
Grace Fellowship Church
Pastor/Teacher: James H. Rickard
23 Messenger Street, Unit 3
Plainville, MA 02762
Copyright © 2001 - 2018.
Property of: James H Rickard Bible Ministries
All Rights Reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment