Ephesians 6:10-20.                  The war is on!!!!                                              26/8/12

 ¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. ¹⁹ Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

 Today we are reminded here, that we are to be ready for battle, because there is a war going on. Now I am sure that most of us don’t want to know about it. We would like to pretend that life is all pretty good and peaceful and that we can quietly go about our life with ease. After all, life doesn’t look too bad, when we look around us.

 Is that so? Again, we don’t need to look very hard at all to see the growing devastation in our society, with all of the corruption, violence, abuse and addictions that are about. They are all symptomatic of a very destructive battle that is going on in the hearts and lives of us all. And it all stems back to our not taking God seriously in our lives. Spiritually our nation is being destroyed, and we are not even blinking an eye.

 Then to bring it in even closer to home, think about what is going in our church and our families. We only have to look around us to see all the empty pews that were once filled thirty and forty years ago. The casualty rate in our churches puts the last world war to shame. So surely that should be a serious warning to us to take seriously what God has to say to us here this morning.

 Along with that there is the need to recognise the conflict and difficulties that we have with one another in our churches and families. They too are reminders that there is a battle going on in our midst that can also cause significant casualties.

 Then to add even more to this, there is, in the church, the constant demands and insinuations that we need to change and take on board all kinds of different thinking. This too is taking its toll on many in the church as they are dragged this way and that. The centrality of Jesus and the cross is hidden under all kinds of other things that are not so essential.

  So all of this, and more, are reminders of a great war going on, that pale the two great wars of the last century into insignificance. The casualty rate is enormous in the western world, and we are hardly blinking an eye.

 Here let us remember that the enemy has only one goal in mind; and that is the total annihilation of all Christians. It is not that he wants to just cause a few disruptions here and there, and give us a hard time; but he is out to destroy us all.

 Here in this reading along with many other places in God’s Word we hear things like this: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. This war is not about our little squabbles and differences; our stupidity and failings. These are only the results of the devil’s schemes. Sure, he is using us human beings, big time; but it is ultimately his war against Jesus Christ and us. He is out to destroy us.

 All of this being the case, Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. Since the day of evil has come we need to prepare ourselves for this onslaught that is going on all around us. We can’t leave it all ‘up to chance’, to battle this out with our own strength. We need all the help that God can give us, so that we do not get caught up in the devils schemes and become his agents.

 Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. The only way we are able to continue to stand and to remain firm to the ends, will be to use everything that God himself has made available to us.

 With this in mind we look at the various pieces of the armour that are mentioned here and the important role they play in our lives. The first mentioned is, the belt of truth buckled around your waist. It doesn’t seem to be much, but how often are we not caught out at the most inopportune time, because our pants have fallen down around our ankles. Both the lack of truth in our actions and the disregard for God’s truth leaves us horribly embarrassed and facing the danger of not being able to stay out of trouble.

 Holding firm to the truth of God’s Word is vital for us today if we don’t want to become a casualty of this war. To do this then we need to spend as much time as we can hearing, reading and meditating on what God tell us in the Bible. At a time when ‘whatever we think is true’ is the truth, we need to remember there is only one real truth; and that is the truth that God himself gives to us.  That truth alone will help us to stand in the midst of this battle.

 The next piece of armour mentioned is the breastplate of righteousness in place. This breastplate protects our vital organs so that we are not mortally wounded. Sadly today as many try to stand in their own self-righteousness they find themselves seriously hurt when they are caught out.

 However, as we are spiritually attacked when we have Christ’s righteousness in our lives we are safe and protected. As we daily stand in the certainty that we are right with God because we are baptised into Jesus death and resurrection and we trust in what he has done for us, we are protected. We know that no one or nothing can take that salvation and eternal life away from us: come what may, we are right with God.

 Then we are reminded of the need for us to have our feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. We need a good pair of boots on so that we can stand firm and sure footed. That comes from having the certainty that we have peace with God through the Good News of Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection for us. That being the case we need to constantly be surrounded by the preaching and teaching of Jesus Christ and the importance of his death on the cross for us.

In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. As Christians we need a good ‘flack-jacket’ in order to deflect all the bullets that the enemy sends our way. So we need a strong faith that trusts solely in God and who he is and what he has done for us through Jesus Christ. Again then, we need his Holy Spirit to be at work in our lives at all times.

  The helmet of salvation is another important component of our Christian warfare. The sure knowledge that we are saved by Jesus Christ alone is what will protect our heads from being confounded, led astray and seriously damaged.

 Then as we also take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, we can defend ourselves from the attacks that come our way, as well as going on the attack ourselves. However to do this we need to know and be well grounded in God’s Word. We need more than just a basic understanding if we are going to stand in the face of the barrage of knowledge that is sent our way these days.

 Finally and probably most importantly we need to pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. We need good communications with our commanding officer if we are to be able to stand firm. We need his help when we are under attack, and so prayer is an important part of our daily life.

Then with all of this armour in place when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
The battle is on, the casualties are great and so the conflict is serious. Let us take God’s warning here seriously and bravely seek to stand firm. With God’s armour on we will survive and at the same time be a great witness to those around us. Hold firmly to Jesus Christ and what he has won for you and you will stand. Then again, may all glory and honour go to our great God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for to him alone it belongs. Amen.

Pastor Roger Atze

Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish