2009 Spiritual Warfare Series, Part 3
Ephesians 6:13-14
Ready with the Truth
Our
Lord is a Master Artist- Paints Pictures
A) Jesus illustrated with stories Two pp
forgiven big debts
B)
Plank in your eye vs a splinter
C) Every Sunset
Well
Paul is writing the book of Ephesians from a Prison cell even there the Lord
finds a scene for illustration { ROMAN GUARD
A) The HS is going to take the Armor that the Roman soldier would wear and use it to
illustrate a powerful Truth about
Spiritual warfare
B) The Lord has equipped us
with Armor for the
1) How to Stand strong
against the enemy of our souls
C) This is our 3rd Study in our summer series on
Spiritual warfare
D) In our first study we
looked at who we were fighting against
1)
Not flesh and blood but principalities
..
E) We talked about Satans
Origin his fall his limitations
1)
Key pt Satan is not the opposite of God
In
our 2nd study we talked about that our call is to stand! V.10-13
A) Stand in the Power of the
Lord not your Power
B) And in that study we did
a brief overview of the armor
2 DIVISIONS -
HAVING & TAKING
1st 3 - he says "having
girded waist w/ truth; having put on the breastplate
of Righteousness, having shod feet w/ ..."
B) By
using the word "having" puts this in the past tense - when
did this happen? The moment you received Christ!
C) The first 3 pieces of
armor deal w/ who you are in Christ. Your position
1)
The point of this is knowing the reality of what Christ has done for you and in
you! Not
redoing but knowing!
D) In the second list the
verb usage is different - present tense
- take up shield, helmet, sword - praying always - daily action!
E)
Daily appropriating the REALITY OF THOSE FIRST 3 parts of the armor
Tonight Start looking at the
Armor Specific aspects
Focus
tonight is the Belt of truth
A) What it is and how it
works
B) The Belt of the Roman
Solider {Roman Tunic cold nights
1) The Belt held it up - Idea is readiness!
C) But see Satan wants to
Entangle you w/ the things of this life & one way that he tries to do that
is by Loosening that Belt of Truth
Now
why does the Lord start with the Belt why not start with the Head the Helmet
of salvation work way down
A) Or why not start with the
feet the shoes of peace and work his way up
B) Why does the HS start in
the middle with the belt
C) The belt holds the
breast plate in place Holds the Sword Holds up the tunic
The
same thing is true of the truth Our faith is held together by the truth of
Gods word. What is truth?
A) The Basis of our faith is
found in the person of Jesus Christ
B)
John 14:6 I am the way the truth and the Life
B)
Who He is! God in the flesh - In Him all the fullness of the Godhead
dwelt
C)
What He accomplished! He purchased our salvation Died and rose
1) No Resurrection No
truth Faith is in Vain -
D) The truth of the
Resurrection like the Belt of truth holds everything into Place
Jesus
reveals to us everything we need to know about God
A) His Love for us Enemies
Christ died
B) His plan make us a part
of His family His kingdom
C) Our Future- Heaven and
eternity
1) Our Present Live for
God
2) Our Purpose His ambassadors
bring God glory
D)
Thru simple faith in Him Trusting in what He
did I am saved / I am set free from Sin Bondage / Freed from Guilt
1)
2) V.36 -
son makes
free is free indeed"
So first of all having on the belt of truth is
Knowing that I am saved ONLY because of what Jesus did for me Nothing of
Myself
A) Not of works lest anyone can boast No boasting in Heaven I made it because I was better than
the other guy Old fashioned
.it
B) Having on the
belt of Truth is Understanding what my Position is in Christ Member of His family / Under His Covering
1) Noted that the Breast
plate of the Roman Solider was fastened to the belt
C) The Breastplate is called the Breastplate of
righteousness Talk about next week Speaks of Our Righteousness in Christ
1) The Fact that if you
are a believer God looks at you in His Son as Holy & Righteous
D) Fact attached to
the Truth found in Jesus
But the Belt of Truth also speaks
of the Overall Truth that is found in the word of God
A)
It means that as a Christian my Values / my Philosophies about Life marriage /
dating / friendships /work ethic / Morals / Priorities
B)
Are all going to be shaped on the Basis of What Gods word says!
C) Profitable for doctrine (what is right) for reproof (what is not right) for correction (how to get right) for instruction (how to stay right)
Realizing that in coming to Christ we found
Him who is in Himself the truth! The key to life - the secret of the
universe; final reality!
So that is the
belt of truth that we are to have on Constantly
A) I know who Christ is I know who I am in Christ
B) Because God the Father sent his son I know I
am loved!
C) The reason it is important to stand on those
things is because Satan loves to attack us in those areas.
D) Root issue is he wants us
to Doubt Gods love, His heart, His plan
1) His goal is to get us to
act independently of God!
Lets look at the 1st
Temptation Illustration of how Satan works Turn to
Now the serpent was more cunning than any
beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman,
"Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the
garden'?"
A) Notice Satan Tactics / he comes questioning the word
of God Has God
indeed said?
B) Did God really say that? Why would He say that?
Notice Eves
response 2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the
fruit of the trees of the garden;
3
"but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden,
God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you
die.'"
A) Satan
questions Gods word - but Eve adds to Gods word - nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'"
B)
God didnt say that / so we see here Eve
getting into a dialogue w/ Satan but she is misquoting the word
1)
Exhortation of our need to
rightly divide the word of God -
C)
If we are going to be
victorious in spiritual battle we need to know how to use our weapons
The
next thing we see is Satan goes from questioning the Word of God to Denying it
altogether 4 Then the serpent
said to the woman, "You will not
surely die.
A) Now this is a Huge tactic
of Satan What God said would happen really isnt going to happen
B) The consequences are not
going to be what He said
No on the contrary -
1) Good is going to come out
of this
5 "For God
knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be
like God, knowing good and evil."
Now
the point of all of this questioning was to get Eve to begin to doubt Gods
Heart and His provision to plant this thought
A) God holding something back from you / He
Doesnt really have your
Best interest at Heart!!
B) That is what He does He plants that
thought Does God really love you?
1) Why are you going through
that difficulty?
2) Why hasnt He answered
that Prayer?
3) How come you are not
doing as good as son and son?
4) Are you really happy and
fulfilled?
C)
At the Crux of all of it is this thought You cant trust God!
D) THAT IS THE
SET UP FOR WHAT FOLLOWS
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good
for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one
wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and
he ate.
Satan will make his appeal
in 3 ways Lust of the flesh eyes Pride of life
Flesh
you need this /
The
eyes you want this /
Pride
you will be better with this you are incomplete with this
So Satan Appealed to her physical
senses - appealed to her flesh in 3 those common areas
1John 2: 15, 16 Do not love the
world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the
Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world; the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; is not of the Father but is
of the world.
In V.16 John point out how Satan partners w/ the world in using
These
3 devices to try and trap us!
A.)
But he appealed to the lust of flesh. Woman saw it was
desirable for food! "Look at that food!"
A) Can you hear
Eve Rationalizing / Well
I am Hungry & I am kind of too tired to walk over to that other tree why
not eat this
1) Single guys Every done
that girl friends house : Well I am too
tired to drive home I will just sleep on the couch
Lust of eyes -Best fruit ever
seen "It was pleasant to the eyes"
A) You know this is a great looking piece of fruit it is a
shame that I am being deprived of experiencing it - Just one bite wouldnt hurt
B) Pride
of life / desirable "It would make her wise"/ Like God!
Satan
& the world use that same scheme on us!
A) Starts with a
thought A doubt Cant trust God or what God said would happen is really
going to happen.
B) The Consequences really
are not what God said!
So He appeals to
our flesh the lust of the flesh
The
Lust of the flesh includes everything that appeals to our fallen nature/ speaks of the gratification of our natural
desires
A) Flesh doesn't mean -
the physical body alone but
anything that appeals to our natural man / our sin nature- born w/ whose chief desire
is to please self!
B) God has
given man certain desires - these desires are good. Hunger, thirst, Sleep/ sex
/ those things are not evil in and of
themselves
C) But when our flesh
controls them they can become sinful/ example hunger isn't evil - normal
function / necessary signal / but gluttony is a sin!
1) Thirst isn't evil but drunkenness
is a sin /
D) Sleep is a gift from God
- but laziness is shameful
D) Sex is wonderful - but practiced outside of marriage it becomes immorality very damaging
& destructive
The
enemy will come using the natural things in the world to tempt us to take one
of our God given natural desires to go out of control w/ it / indulge it
A) We
are bombarded everyday w/ temptations to satisfy our flesh
B)
Jesus was tempted turn stones into bread? -
Truth Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word
..
C)
There is more to life than food what wear - NO COMPROMISE
The
2nd device that the world uses to trap us is the lust of the eyes!
A) Involves
what we take in w/ our mind! As well as
what we see w/ our eyes!
TV. Mags / Internet / conversations {You want this
B)
World comes & says Look at that look
what missing - look what he has /
C)
Illustrate how this works / a while back Denise made a
tray of brownies / I came home 1st place I go is kitchen / saw this
tray of brownies ate one
1)
She comes in & says dont
eat any more of those they are not for us they were some function
D)
But
every time I walked thru the kitchen calling out my name Rob / so I took
another & another / moving around
on tray / out of control
Dd)
Now Eating brownies is not wrong but it
illustrates how lust of eyes works pulls
you in calls out your name / need get
out of sight /
1) I was fine once Denise left!!!!
2Timothy 2:22 Flee youthful lust
How? By pursuing righteousness faith love peace w/ those who call on the Lord
pure heart
How
do we gain victory over the lust of the eyes / by placing our eyes on that
which is righteous lovely?
3rd Device - Pride of Life!
A) This will make you
better!
B) Image Possessions
C) But Satan also seeks to
use this tactic as it relates to our salvation
D) He wants us to think that
there is something that we need to do to Secure it or maintain it
1)
He comes along & whispers you need to be good enough religious
E)
Doubting the Sufficiency of Christ Death & Resurrection Jesus plus
something else Mary / or follow code
1) The message in so much of modern
day Psychology is what Christ did is not enough / Places such an emphasis on
self / Self Help etc
C) He tries to get us
to think that what Christ did at
1)
Standing on the truth
Jesus is who He said He was
A) I am who I am Because I
am in Christ
B)
His Sufficiency is enough!
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened,
and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made
themselves coverings.
A) Ch. 2:25 And
they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
After sinned they were
ashamed / sin brings shame - destroys intimacy in marriage - / adultery - sometimes never recover
Also affected their intimacy w/ God V.8
And they heard the sound of the LORD God
walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid
themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
A)
Adam
was once close to God now hiding from God - sin destroys intimacy w/ God
V.9 Then the Lord God
called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?"
Told
that Adam and God walked together in the cool of the day - special time - so
here we see God coming to meet Adam & he isnt there
C)
God
is not coming as arresting cop - but as a heart broken father
V10 So he said, "I
heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid
myself."
D)
Sin
brings fear - makes us afraid of God
1)
Exactly what Satan wants
V.11 11 And He said, "Who told you that you were
naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should
not eat?"
A)
Why
God ask? didnt he know - Man needed to confess
B)
Gods
Provision!!!!!! / The Sacrifice!!!!!
C)
Back to Jesus Who He is
What
He did
Who we are in Him