Overcoming the Raging Battle - Ephesians 6:10-17

1:07Well, it's no secret, is it, that the church that stands on the authority of Scripture, the church in America and around the world that proclaims God's word with that authority and with clarity, is under attack. And so that's why tonight I wanted to examine what does the scripture say about overcoming these battles, overcoming the battles. The spiritual forces that are against the church. It's not just the things that we see in the headlines. It's not just the attacks that we see on Christianity around the world. It's not the people attacking us that we're going to focus on this evening. It's who's behind the attacks? And so, as a body of Christ, we're told in the book of Ephesians that it's the body of Christ that builds the church. Yes, Jesus builds his church, but we have an active role to play within that building process that goes on. And as we build the church together, as we surround ourselves with other godly people, as we surround ourselves with the scripture, and as we are obedient to the scripture, we will find that we are going to be under attack. And so, therefore, we have to keep an eye out for one another. We have to encourage one another. We have to be praying for one another. Backbiting is not the place in the church to be taking place. And so, we need to cover for one another. And I want you to know that this sermon is not so much about a person or you or me as much as it is about the church. You see, this book of Ephesians was written to a group of people. It was written to a specific church. And as a church, they were told to do certain things, overcome, in this case, spiritual warfare. And so, as a church, this church, we are the ones who are called together into battle as a team, as a unit, as a body of Christ. And so, while the book of Ephesians addresses people individually by Implication, really, the direct address from this book is to believers. And so, when we reach chapter 6, the church is to face spiritual warfare in accordance with God's plan and how to overcome all that. So, as we see this text, you're going to see that the book of Ephesians in chapter 6 has some dire warnings for the church. Some dire warnings. What are we going to see here? Well, what you're going to see is you're going to see spiritual forces of wickedness. They hate us. There are dark powers just simply chomping at the bit to get after us, to see us fail as a church, to see us go under as a church. The satanic and demonic forces that hate Jesus so very much, they have a goal. And that goal that they have is just not simple victory, mind you. Their goal is entire annihilation of the church. This church and other like-minded churches, they have a take-no-prisoners mindset. And so, how do we face that?

4:07They despise Jesus. They loathe you and me. They hate your marriages, and they despise your children as well. And so, they would come after us as spiritual forces of darkness. The question is: will you, will we as a church, be ready, as verse 13 tells us, be ready for the day of evil? And so that's what this chapter is about. It's about getting ready for that. How will this church overcome this raging battle? Are those things that you think about sometimes? It's something that we need to be thinking about. Men, it's time to repent of our passivity, if that's you. It's time to take the bull by the horns. It's time to get serious about loving God with all our heart, minds, soul, and strength, and loving our neighbor as ourself.

5:02Jesus said that if they hate me, they will hate you also. And since they crucified him, what does that mean for us? We live in a culture now that each and every day we hear a new story where the tide is turning against us. As the battle rages, where will it rear its ugly head again? Is it biblical doctrine? We're pretty upfront about our biblical doctrine. You can look at it on the pamphlets in the back. You can go to the website. We're pretty upfront with what we believe. And there are people that would despise us for that. Will they attack us on that front? I tell you, there are many churches that are attacked on that front, and they give in to the attack and they just go off on their way and forget their doctrines. What about our education? Anyone familiar with SB 1146 out in California? SB 1146, new bill going through that the governor will say. Sign once it gets there, and it will force Christian colleges to hire unbelieving people as their leader in their leadership. It will force these colleges to open up their locker rooms and their restrooms to anybody who wants to enter that particular room. You know what I'm talking about. It's a battle. Our sermons as pastors, they're not off limits. You know, just not too long ago, the mayor of Houston demanded that the five specific pastors in the area submit their sermons to her attention so that she could go through them and find out how they addressed her new, you know, anybody gets to use any restroom policy.

6:40The churches in Iowa, if you have a Christian school at your church, then you are, just like anybody else, you've got to open your facilities for anybody to use whatever they want. Men in women's room, and vice versa. Children's ministry. We have to be vigilant. One simple accusation could do us in as a church. We have to make sure that the people who are serving in our children's ministry are qualified to be there. Disqualified elders. One of us goes down, just one of us. And we're in big trouble if it's through adultery or something horrible like that. Are you praying for us as your elders, as the leaders here?

7:21We need your prayers. We need them bad. Our wives need your prayers. Our children need your prayers. Please pray for us. As the baptism. Continues. How will the enemy advance? How will the enemy advance at my own home? My husband, my marriage, my wife, the after them, my parents, my children, my job. I just summarized the text just before the one we're about to read. It tells us how to be godly husbands and wives and parents and children and employers in the workplace, employees in the workplace. We ask the question: what on earth is going on?

7:58What is going on? How does the book of Ephesians end in such a severe wake-up call as to prepare us for war? I mean, this book is an amazing book. If you haven't read it, go through it. It should only take you 20 minutes to read it. But it ends in warfare. With an ending like that, you would expect the whole letter to be about war, about battles, and about all that we're facing. But in reality, it's this very letter. It's this very letter that causes the war.

8:32It's the things that are written in this letter that causes the evil one to come against us. Chapters 1 through 3 talks about who you are in Christ and how you got saved. Chapters 4 through 6 tell you how to act like a Christian. Walk in a manner worthy of your calling. Walk in a manner worthy of God's choice of you. Chapter 5 implores us to bear God's image, to know God's will, to be filled with the Spirit. And I'm left asking myself why on earth, if this letter Is such an amazing pearl of encouragement. Why does it end this way with a warning of warfare?

9:09As people in this church, Emmanuel Baptist church, walk in a manner worthy of our calling, the war will come to us. If we do the things that this text tells us to do, chapters 1 through 6, we will be in a spiritual warfare. If we aren't standing firm under the authority of Scripture with the bold conviction to carry it out, then we will lose this war long before we even realize the first shot has come over the bow. But we've got to be vigilant. So why don't we read the passages that we're looking at here in chapter 6, verses 10 through 17? I just wanted you to understand that introduction a little bit so you understand what he's talking about. Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 17. Here's what Paul writes. He says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers and against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day. And having done everything to stand firm, stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

10:59Well, in order to stand firm in this spiritual warfare, we've got to trust the Lord for our victory. As we advance the slide here, I just want to say that as the body of Christ, there are three requirements to overcome the forces of evil that are bent on our demise. Three things that I believe Paul wants us to understand in this text. First, he wants us to rely on the Lord. It's very clear in chapter 6, verses 10 and the beginning of verse 11. Then to recognize our purpose, and then, of course, to utilize the proper weapons that God has given us. He's given us six of them. Those are his weapons, and he has given those to us, and we need to use them. So let's start with the first one: rely on the Lord. Requirements for overcoming these evil forces. And the first one is to rely on the Lord. So, in preparation for war, there's really two actions that we see in the text here. There's two of them. You can glance down at verse 10 and 11. We must be strengthened by the Lord's might. It's His might that we would be strengthened by. Drill into that. And number two, we must put on the full armor of God. These are directives that he gives us here. First of all, we must be strengthened by the Lord. And in this case, it's not our human might that brings us strength, brings about strength, but it's God's might. It's not as though, in a human sense, lifting weights makes us stronger. We are to get strengthened from the Lord. It's his might. It's the Lord who makes us strong. But how? How will the Lord strengthen us with his armor? That's the question. Well, and it's pretty clear in the text and the whole context here. Through biblical living, we see it in verse 14, and we'll get into this a little bit later, but through biblical living. That's what this book is about from chapters 4 through 6. It's biblical living, so that's how we get strengthened. The preparation of the gospel of peace. We're strengthened through that in verse 15. That's why we have partners one-on-one. That's why we have this discipleship process so that we can strengthen our people with the gospel of peace. Biblical faith in verse 16. Understanding salvation in verse 17. And a firm grasp on the scripture referred to metaphorically as our sword.

13:16The more we depend on our own self and our own devices and our own ways to overcome evil, the weaker we will become unless we depend on God's strength. If the elders and this church appear, The teachers of this church teach the Bible and assert something that the Bible says that is not true, we have surrendered a firm stance. I can tell you, the elders of this church, the leadership at this church, have a firm commitment to God's word, the inerrancy of scripture, and we will not let it go. God help us. If we've done this, we've tipped the first domino. If we get rid of scripture, the first domino is tipped, and it's only a matter of time before our patient enemy watches us surrender in some other way. And the greater the attack, the attacks will be. Well, in order to rely on the Lord, there's a second action that we must take, and it's in verse 11. Verse 11. It's pretty clear in the text. We must put on the full armor of God. It's God's armor. We must put on that armor, is what he's telling us. The faithful church is in a battle on a scale that dwarfs any battle or war in human history.

14:34The more God blesses a church that holds fast to the Bible, the greater the attacks that Satan will level against that church. Since God's word is the backbone of this church, we need to be prepared for the full arsenal that Satan would bring to us. This requires that each and every one of us know the scriptures. I'm so thankful that Pastor Tom took us through months of psalms. Chapter 119. We got to see how important Scripture is. Would you turn with me just to Psalm 19? And let's take a look at the importance of Scripture. This is what we need to know. Not the whole thing. I'm just going to read a brief portion of Psalm 19, verses 11, excuse me, 7 through 11. We need to know this word. And this is what the psalmist David wrote in verse 7 of Psalm 19. He says, The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. That's God's testimonies. They restore the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing in the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true. They are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold. Yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also than the honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, in keeping them, there is great reward. It's God's word that warns us. It's God's word that is reliable, is dependable. And so if we jettison his word, we open ourselves up to a church that will be decimated. That is not an option for a manual Baptist church. This brings us to the second mandate. You can see it on the screen there, to recognize our purpose. The second mandate to stand against wickedness is to recognize the reason that we're here. And you're going to see four reasons to put on the full. Armor of God. There's four specific ones within the text. The first one is: as a biblical church, as a church that trusts in God's Word, we must keep God's armor on so that we have an ability to stand firm against the schemes, the wiles of the devil.

16:50We think of schemes, you think strategies. The King James Version does call out the wiles of the devil. Verse 16 says that he throws flaming arrows at us, much like the Roman soldiers would have received in their day. It's the sadistic methods that the devil might use to render this church and every other Bible-believing church ineffective. They're after our doctrine. They're after God's word. They're after our leaders. The second reason to put on the full armor of God is found in verse 12. The full armor of God protects us from our true enemy.

17:29Our true enemy. I want you to think about the text there. Notice in verse 12, notice who the enemy is not in verse 12. Do you see it? It's flesh and blood. The enemy is not the person sitting next to you or in an aisle near you. It's not even a person in this room. It's not flesh and blood. Those who faithfully preach and teach God's word are the messengers of God's word. They're not the enemy. I'm talking about those who faithfully teach and preach God's Word. Not their own ideas. Those who don't pray for, don't serve, or don't give financially to the ministry, they're not the enemy.

18:10Our political leaders, those who lead our nation, are our mission field. They are not our enemy. You say, well, then how do I deal with the flesh and blood in this room? Or how do I deal with the flesh and blood in my family, my boss, those who report to me? What about that? That's a great question to ask. You know what? He doesn't spend any time in this section of scripture dealing with it. You'd have to go up just a few passages, just a few verses to chapter 5 and chapter 6, and he deals with flesh and blood. He tells husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church. He tells wives to be submissive to their husbands and respect them. He tells children to honor their parents and parents not to provoke their children to anger. And he tells employers and employees not to provoke one another to anger, but to serve as unto the Lord.

19:02Chapter 6, verse 9. Employers, would you speak condescendingly to your employees the way that you would speak to Jesus? Would you talk to Jesus the way you talk to them? Employees, would you talk to your boss? Would you talk to Jesus the way you talk to your boss? It's all in the context here. So we've already dealt with the flesh. Now he wants us to deal with our real enemy. You see, when we backbite, when we malign, when we hurt, People in our church, the real enemy with whom we struggle is like a roaring lion, and he's seeking someone to what? Devour.

19:39Boy, that's a scary word. So thus we see the third reason to put on God's defense mechanisms. We have to recognize the real enemy. Again, it's not the one sitting next to you. It's not. Who is the real enemy? And what must we know about him so that we can stand against these malicious, conniving schemes? Well, we already saw in verse 11 that the devil is indeed our foe. Verse 12 tells us more about Satan and his demonic forces. We know that in Genesis 3, that Satan appeared as a snake and he tempted Adam and Eve. Eve was deceived. Adam voluntarily rebelled against God. Nonetheless, Satan was the instigator.

20:23We know from the New Testament that Satan will be crushed. We know from the New Testament that we're not ignorant about his schemes. We just need to read it. He hinders God's people, and he has the power over death, according to the New Testament. We must resist him. We must flee from him. He prowls about like a roaring again, seeking someone to devour. I go back to the truth of God's word. Psalm 119:105, Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a guide to my path.

21:00And if we get rid of God's word, people that don't know God's word, it's the enemy, the one who's going to be doing the devouring. He's looking for the one that doesn't have a firm grounding in God's word. That ought to tell you that you need to be exposed to expository preaching, and you need to be exposed to God's Word in your own quiet time. In verse 12, the words that describe him and his demonic buddies are synonymous. We won't spend a whole lot of time on them. You can see them. Satan and his buddies are called powers, authorities. They're called world forces, spiritual forces. They're called wicked forces, principalities. What are they not called?

21:40Flesh and blood. These are not people that we're dealing with. These are those who, like Satan in the garden, would tempt us to sin and to reject our God. We're called to take our stand against him. One writer, I really appreciate what he said about our enemy here. He says this: He says, quote, a supernatural power having some particular role in controlling the destiny and activities of human beings. That's our enemy. When the church, when we as a church, Immanuel Baptist church, no longer walk in a manner worthy of our calling, it opens us to the controlling influences of wickedness.

22:27There's a fourth reason to take up God's word. God's armor. Fourth reason. Once you've taken up God's armor, you should be able to resist. It doesn't say to fight him necessarily. It says to resist, to withstand and to oppose wicked forces bent on destroying the church, this church. When we think he's not after us, we've failed already. We're in big trouble. Little church in Bryan, Texas. Well, Paul clarifies in verse 13: our ability to stand firm assumes that we have everything that we need to withstand the veiled strategies and the flaming arrows that are tossed against us.

23:09Two questions for our church here at Emmanuel. What are we doing to prepare for the evil day? There are some things that we're doing to prepare. We're exposing ourselves to the truth of God's word in corporate worship, Friday night church, partners one-on-one. There's more we could do to withstand this spiritual warfare. Are we prepared for the unmerciful onslaught against us? The more we know of God's Word and the more that we act in accordance with what Ephesians tells us to act like in our home lives, the more situated we are to resist.

23:49But what are you personally doing? You, individually, what are you doing to be a part of this body and to ensure its growth and its vitality moving forward? Who are you discipling? Who are you encouraging through God's Word? Who's your discipler? Who do you go to when you have questions or issues? Is it online to ask how I should deal with certain issues, or is it God's Word or people that know God's Word? Matthew 28, verse 19, is our command to make disciples from Jesus. That's what we need to be about doing. Is church a place for us to occupy space for an hour and 15 minutes a week or an occasional Sunday? Or is church a body of people who are edified and encouraged because you have taken the steps to minister to the people in this body and outside this body to reach others for Christ?

24:49If you're sleeping in the galley, you're a hindrance to this church. This is a battle. We need all hands on deck serving and protecting and encouraging one another. Is it you who resist the enemy by praying for your shepherds on a daily basis? Are you the one that's praying for us? Are you the one who resists the enemy, preparing the next generation to hear the truth of God's word so that they can prepare subsequent generations to take up God's armor? Will you resist the enemy by spreading the gospel? There's so many opportunities we have. We have Impact Fair coming up. We have the. The barbecue coming up, gigamweek. We can pass out these flyers, we can pass out brochures, we can pass out these DVDs about the important questions of life.

25:41Am I the one holding the shields to protect this church? Well, now that we've taken up God's armor in verse 13, we're poised to overcome the raging battle. That brings us to our third point: utilize the proper weapons. Utilize the proper weapons. And there are six of them that he lists here. It's six weapons. I won't read it again. We just read it. There's six weapons for spiritual warfare. You can glance down at the text from verses 14 through 17. The first is truth. The second is righteousness. The third is the gospel of peace. The fourth is faith.

26:18The fifth is salvation. And the sixth is the Bible. Verse 14 assumes that we've already taken up the armor of God as a church. Again, I want to remind you that he's not addressing this to individuals so much. He's addressing it to the church. In other words, church, work together to put on the armor of God. It's your responsibility as believers. And each of these weapons comes with a metaphor. So if we're going to stick with a metaphor language, let's just put it this way, metaphorically speaking, he's saying you need to put your big boy pants on. This is getting serious, right? Be ready for the war. We must be immovable in our doctrine. We must be unrelenting in the truth of the gospel, ruthless and tenacious with our call to stand firm, as he says here in the text. As the battle against the church rages, I want to quote Steve Lawson, one of my professors. He says, we shouldn't be dogmatic. And he slams his hand on the desk. We should be bulldogmatic about the truth. We don't back off.

27:29Where God's word is clear, we must be clear. And as we're clear about God's word, we will receive these attacks, I promise you. Look at verse 14. There's a metaphor there. To prepare for war, Roman soldiers, Roman soldiers, freed themselves of unnecessary clothing. They had to gird their loins. They didn't dress the way that we dress now. So they had to gather their garments, wrap it around themselves, and they had to be ready to run into battle.

27:59You won't see Allison Felix running the 200-meter in the Olympics with her prom dress on. Right? She's going to wear something that's comfortable for running and is going to get her the gold medal. Neither would we expect the church to overcome the enemy with bad theology, with bad doctrine. In other words, we're not going to capitulate to doctrines that are not biblical just to make people happy and that we all get along here. The Lord doesn't stand for that.

28:30Stand firm in the battle because we've affixed God's truth to every fiber of our being. Check out the second metaphor in verse 14. The second metaphor: the breastplate of righteousness. Metaphorically speaking, right? It's talking about the breastplate of righteousness. Guard the most precious assets you have as your church. These soldiers, these Roman soldiers, would take up this breastplate and it would protect their internal organs, the most important organs in their body. You would not see a thinking police officer enter the line of battle without his bulletproof vest.

29:13Our church can't withstand the enemy when we have unrighteous people serving amongst us with unconfessed sin. That's why we want so much for our teachers to be members, for our teachers to have gone through partners one-on-one, so that we can teach and diligently help them. Unconfessed sin. 1 John 1, verses 9 and 10, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we haven't sinned, we make him a liar. So, yes, everybody that teaches here will be those who have confessed their sins so that we're prepared.

29:53Take a look at the third metaphor in verse 15. That's the third metaphor. A Roman soldier's feet have. Be ready to run into the battle. Do you see it there in the text? Another metaphor in our current times, using Alice and Felix as another example, metaphor. You wouldn't see her running the 200-meter for the gold and red shiny pumps. And you're not going to see a gospel-oriented church sacrifice the gospel. They are going to be ready to run into battle.

30:33What is the gospel of peace? Could you, in 30 seconds, describe that to somebody if they were to ask you, what is the gospel of peace? Would you know how to teach the others, anybody else, the gospel? Isn't the gospel pretty simple? It's Jesus died, righteous life. He was crucified. He was buried. He rose again. He's coming back. And what does he expect? He expects repentance and belief in that. Now, that's the gospel. That's pretty simple. That's the call to salvation. Well, there's a fourth metaphor found in verse 16.

31:08Romans, the Roman soldiers, they used their shields to collectively protect one another from their enemies' artillery. You see it in the text, these fiery darts. They would launch these fiery darts or missiles at them. And so, how would they protect themselves? Well, they had their shield, right? They had a shield. And if you look at a Roman soldier, if you look and you. Can look online. You don't see a whole lot of them carrying their shield just for themselves, you see. The metaphor is for the church to carry their shields collectively. And the Roman soldiers, yes, they'd carry their shield, they put it in front of them, and that's the front line. Subsequent lines behind the front line, they held their shields above their heads.

31:52And so, as they went into battle and the fiery darts were coming at them, the rocks or whatever was launched against them, it bounced off the shield, and they would go in and perform their attack. So, our shield of faith, our faith in what? Well, chapter 4 tells us the unity of the faith. He says, We are to serve in the body of Christ, building up one another in the body of Christ until we achieve, attain the unity of the faith.

32:20The faith that God gives us throughout Scripture, it's not faith just in anything. We know that our spiritual enemy stalks around this church looking for an easy victim. An easy victim. 1 Peter 5, verses 8 through 9. What is he looking for? He says this to the church. He says, Be of sober spirit. Be on the alert. Your adversary, who? The devil. He prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. He's looking for the weak ones. He's looking for the ones who haven't spent time in the Word, who don't consult the Lord when they're making big decisions. But he says in verse 9, resist him firm in your faith.

33:06You can pull up any clip on YouTube, and you can look up Lion Attack or something like that, and you can see how lions stalk their prey, and they come in very quietly. Nobody sees them coming. That's the metaphor. A church that teaches salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, is ready to overcome the raging battles. That's our spiritual warfare. We're truthful with what God's word says, and we don't back away. Religions that preach salvation by works for any other way to heaven have succumbed to the devil already.

33:47They didn't like the helmet law. Didn't allow them enough freedom, you see. So we could get more people in our church if we just relax this whole grace-faith thing, right? They don't like the helmet law. They went freestyle. They got rid of it. And they rid of themselves salvation by grace. They became dead churches. So much for freestyle. Our helmet is important. It's very important. There's another metaphor, a sixth one, a sixth metaphor. And it's the first offensive weapon that we're given from God. The others are all defensive weapons. You see, a Roman soldier may have his entire, his entire. Outfit of armor on. Everything's working for him. But if he enters the battle without the sword, everybody in his cohort, in his company, is at risk because he didn't bring his sword.

34:42Isn't that a scary thought? If he doesn't have his sword, and if somebody in his company is hurt, there's nothing to protect them, they both get hurt. We must carry our sword, and so the word of God is metaphorically called a sword. Think of it this way: in our own nation, we have changes going on in our nation. If we head down this path of a socialistic society after January, and that group, whoever gets in the White House, abandons the Second Amendment, they throw down their sword as though a church would throw down God's word and not trust in it. They throw down the sword, they throw down the whole idea that we can defend ourselves. Mark my words. When there's nobody to defend themselves, you won't have a right of freedom of speech. That's gone too.

35:37But let me just say this: that's a metaphor for throwing down a sword. Yes, we might lose our amendments here in the United States, but our hope is steadfast. Our Savior is true, and he will not let us go. Even if we don't have the worldly weapons of war, we have the weapon, the one true weapon, God's double-edged sword. The world landscape is littered with former churches who have laid down their sword. And they've said that we will allow anybody who wants to come in to come in to feel comfortable here when it's the Word of God that causes people to feel uncomfortable. We can lay down the Word of God and people will be comfortable. We could be a club of some sort and make people happy.

36:24To them, the idea of scriptural, biblical, inerrancy is offensive. If this church is to overcome this raging battle, this war that we face, we must stand firm with our double-edged sword in the pulpit. Hebrews chapter 4, verses 12 through 13 tells us that God's word is a double-edged sword, and it pierces the division of both joints and marrow. 2 Timothy 2:15 says, To study, to show yourself approved to God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. So, how will this church overcome the raging battle? How will we do it?

37:05Are we ready? Are we prepared? Are there some things we can do different? If we stand firm against the schemes of the devil and we rely upon the Lord, we have a chance, not just a chance, we have God's protection. If we do Ephesians 4:1, the Lord will strengthen us. What is Ephesians 4:1? To walk in a manner worthy of your calling with what you've been called, and then to do chapters 5. And six. If we equip the saints to do the work of the ministry, the Lord will strengthen us and we will stand firm. If we pursue godly marriages, we will stand firm as a church because we'll be able to reach people for Christ. Second, we must recognize our enemy. If you need some help moving forward to recognize your enemy, think about the text here.

37:53People are not your enemy. People need the gospel of peace. The powers of wickedness need the sword. Don't unsheathe your sword at your flesh and blood, brother and sister in Christ. Encourage them. Put your arm around them. Work with them. Encourage them with the word. Don't beat them with the word. So people are not our enemies. People are not our enemies. Wicked forces are our enemy. And you must fight them with the truth of God's Word. Well, there's the third one that we looked at here. When we've taken up God's armor, we stand firm in the raging battle. We must utilize these weapons.

38:37It's important that we not look at this text and say, I need to go get me some armor so I can stand firm. As a church, we need to be the ones bearing the armor together as a body of Christ to protect this congregation. To be victorious in the battle, we must work together for that purpose. We have to take our minds off ourselves and start building the body of Christ together. I would say, pray for Emmanuel. Pray that each and every one of us would understand that we work together to put on this armor and that we teach one another, we help one another.