“Know Thy Enemy”
Ephesians 6:10-20

I. Exposition
   a. Passage in context  
Our Bible study passage begins with the apostle Paul saying, “Finally.”  This is the same kind of summary statement as when a preacher utters those two words that congregations long to hear, “In closing…”  “Finally,” says Paul, after all I have just taught you about God’s cosmic plan of saving all creation through the people of God living and proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, now you need to be reminded that pursuing such a calling will provoke violent resistance!  

The forces of evil that hold human souls in captivity and all planet earth under its dominion are not going to just give up their control without a fight, a violent fight with eternal consequences.  And so God, through the apostle Paul in the letter to the Ephesians, gives us instructions on the need to engage in constant spiritual warfare.

   b. “Know Thy Enemy”
      i. “For our battle is not against blood and flesh but against…
Our study passage reveals in verse 12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood…” but against powerful and organized forces of darkness and evil.  According to The Art of War, by Sun Tzu, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.  If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”  If we are going to be victorious over the darkness in this world, in rescuing others from sin and hell, and in overcoming the entangling sin in our own lives, we had better identify our enemies.

Many in the Western world, Christians included, no longer believe in a literal devil defined as a living spiritual being.  Rather, they define evil as a non-personal force.  In response to this, we do well to heed the wise admonishment that C.S. Lewis gives us in his must-read book, “The Screwtape Letters,”  "There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils.  One is to disbelieve in their existence.  The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.  They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight."

The official theology embraced by our denomination and this church is that when the Bible speaks of demons and Satan, it is referring to actual spiritual beings with intellect, will, emotions, and the ability to influence and interact with the physical world.   

     ii. The origin and structure of the domain of darkness
Verse 12 also goes on to reveal the structure of this demonic realm in saying that our struggle is, “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  Now this is not the setting to go into great detail about these four categories of the demonic governmental system that rules over planet earth.  But there are two main points I do want to emphasis from this verse.  


Firstly, for reasons not fully understood yet, our sovereign God is allowing Satan and an innumerable number of fallen angels to rule in the heavenlies over plant earth and humanity.  We must realize that the demonic realm is a hierarchical structure that encircles our planet and rules over earthly structures as well as people.  This means that spiritual warfare must take on evil in human structures as well as evil in human hearts.  We are called not just to proclaim the gospel to save individuals, but also to fight against institutionalized structures that oppress and foster injustice.

Secondly, while our all-powerful God does place limits on how much damage these demons can do, it is clear in seeing how utterly dark this world can be, how blind people can be to truth, and how shockingly evil humanity can be to one another that their power and freedom to inflict horrific harm is widespread and considerable.

    iii. Life and Love are War!
We must know our enemy and take these forces into account if we are going to live lives of overcoming faith, world-changing love, and sin-freeing hope.  Now I would suspect that in a congregation like ours, the error that most of us fall into is not disbelieving that the demonic realm is real, but in minimizing its impact on our daily lives.  This occurs because many limit their definition of the demonic to a horror-movie understanding of demons, or that demonic influence only occurs in people caught up in gross physical sin, or overt evil.

Rather, we need to understand that our materialism, greed, gossip, apathy, busyness, selfishness, neglect of the Word and prayer, and failure to proclaim the gospel is just as demonically inspired as murder, rape or abuse.  The evil one doesn’t care if he has you trapped by crack addiction or consumed with living out the American Dream!  Either way he wins, because both will keep you from living a life that proclaims the gospel and engaed in the warfare of intercessory prayer!  If we do not label these sins that especially plague Americans , and every sin, and every flight from our calling, as acts of war by the enemies of God then we will not fight against them with the fury required for victory!  

Now we actually have three enemies in this battle that all work together against God and us.  These enemies are (1) our sinful nature, (2) the current world system, and (3) the demonic realm.  Is it any wonder that living a life of faith, hope, and love is hard!  Friends, we must embrace and prepare for the harsh reality that life and love are war!  Here are some tell-tale signs of when we neglect to wage war against the worldly system, the sinful nature, and the demonic realm:
 - We neglect daily time in God’s Word and prayer
 - Our values, priority and worldview are shaped more by the world than the Bible
 - We do not tithe and give as we are commanded
 - We struggle with habitual sin
 - We prioritize our pursuit of happiness, personal success, material gain, and earthly recreation over       corporate worship, prayer, and ministry.
 - Our relationships are more defined by conflict than joy and intimacy
 - We experience physical aliments that cannot be clearly connected to natural causes
 - Our emotions drive our behavior and attitudes
 - Our life is more defined by the deeds of the flesh than the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5)

So what is our battle plan…
   c. “Know Thy Battle Plan for Victory”
      i. “Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power”
Verse 13 commands us to, “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power!”  Human beings are defenseless against the kingdom of darkness as none of our physical weapons can do them harm.  If our almighty, sovereign God did not place some restrictions upon their power, the world would be far darker than it even is already.  As Christians, it is no different, outside of Christ we have no power whatsoever to defeat evil.

But saints of God here this and claim this truth daily.  Way back in Ephesians chapter one we are empowered with the truth that we who are in Christ as Holy-Spirit-filled, adopted children of God, are “seated with Christ in the heavenlies, “21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.  Here Paul uses those same four categories of the hierarchy of the demonic realm again, and in Christ brothers and sisters, we are seated above them in dvbdthe overcoming power and might of Christ!
 
      ii. Victory is assured but the battle rages
So our response to the reality of a powerful and active demonic realm, and the inescapable harsh truth that life and love are war, should never be fear or forgetfulness.  We do not need to fear the demonic realm as Christians, but neither can we ignore their reality and the degree of significant influence they do have in our every day life and relationships.  As Gandalf declares in the The Hobbit, “It does not do to leave a dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”  The victory is assured, but a fierce, life and death battle rages on.

Let me illustrate by comparing what happened between World War II’s D-Day and V-Day.  D-Day was June 6, 1944, a day that the result of the war was decided when the allied forces invaded the beaches of Normandy.  However, the war did not officially end until V-Day, May 7, 1945.  Between those two dates, almost a year, there were still battles fought and many allied lives lost.  In fact, the rage of Hitler’s army after the defeat on the beaches of Normandy was more intense during that year then the whole rest of the war.  


So, we need a battle plan, and God gives us one.

      iii. “Take your stand against the devil’s schemes”
Verse 11 commands us to “take your stand against the devil's schemes.”  This word “scheme” denotes a comprehensive, strategic plan and methodology.  The plans that the evil one and his demons design for you are more detailed and brilliant than any battle plan drawn up by even the most successful of human generals.  They know your every weakness, your habits, what seasons of life leave you most vulnerable, the patterns you follow when you are going to commit certain sins, etc.  They set both short term and long term traps for you.  All meaning that we must take the admonitions like the one found in 1 Peter 5:8-9 very seriously and live our life accordingly, “Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith….”

      iv. When the day of evil comes…stand…stand…stand!
In verses 13 and 14 we are commanded three times that “when the day of evil comes,” to stand.  To “stand” is a military term for holding your ground.  There are three options in warfare: retreat, advance, and stand.  Nowhere in Scripture are we told to retreat from the devil!  
But in this passage, we are given instructions on when to hold our ground in defense, and when to advance in offense.  This command to “stand” is our calling to be in this posture of defense all the time, 24/7/365!  We do so by always wearing the full armor of God.  Then, as a Body of Christ, we are commanded to engage evil in all its forms and sources in prayer, which is our primary weapon.  

   d. “Put on the full armor of God”
Before we go through each of these armor pieces, let me emphasize two critical points.
   - The way this command is written it strongly emphasizes that we must always have on God’s full and complete armor.  If we leave one piece off, you can be guaranteed the evil one will notice and attack you in that area.  For example, if your breastplate of being secure in your salvation is on, but you are compromising your belt of truth in someway by failing to live in ethical and moral integrity in some area of your life, evil will exploit that opening.  
   - Secondly, the way the Greek is composed in this passage is to emphasize that we are to put on this armor once and for all time.  While there is teaching, even a hymn, that talks about praying on this armor, these pieces really cannot be put on in prayer.  O that it would be that easy!  Each of these pieces are referring to our status as adopted children of God and the life of obedience that should flow from that.  Here is what you can do in prayer each morning.  You can pray declarations of what is already true and affirmations of your commitment to walk in these truths.  

We are not going to go into great detail on each of these pieces.  Perhaps in a future sermon we will, and there are hundreds of teachings that do so available in books or on the web.  I am just going to point out the central point of what each piece represents.  It is very likely that the apostle Paul was actually chained to a Roman solider on house arrest while he wrote these verses which accounts for his use of these armor pieces.  They do not have any special significance in themselves as they are just an illustration.  If Paul were chained to an American solider while he was writing he would be talking about body armor and rifles.

     i. Belt of Truth
This piece of armor is referring to our living a life of integrity and obedience to Christ.  This is not referring to truth as in doctrine, but to truth in practice.  To not wear this piece, is to be living in any type of known, willful disobedience to God’s standards as revealed in the Bible.  This does not mean that we are sinless, that is impossible.  But there should be no sin in our life that we are aware of that we are not also seeking constant forgiveness for and God’s grace to overcome.  Obedient living is like a belt because the Roman belt is what held all the other armor pieces in place.

    ii. Breastplate of Righteousness
This piece refers to our already being declared forgiven and holy in Christ.  This is the power of knowing who you are as an adopted child of God, a prince and princess of the Most High King!  To not wear this piece is to be controlled by a corrupt self-image or to define yourself based on wordy measures.  It is like a breastplate in that our being secure in our identity in Christ is what protects our heart.

  iii. Shoes of the Gospel of Peace
This piece refers to our standing in a restored relationship of peace with God that empowers us to declare this gospel of peace in word and deed.  Before you surrendered your life to Christ, the Bible reveals that God considered you an enemy!  When God reached down and declared you his child, Romans chapter five declares now you have peace with God through faith in Christ.  It is like the Roman sandals as those spiked shoes gave the solider firm footing in battle, so the truth that nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ gives you firm footing the war of life and love!

   iv. Shield of Faith
This is our unshakable trust in God and His promises that counteract every lie and attack of our three enemies.  Just like Christ in the temptation account, when the enemy shoots the fiery darts of his lies and accusations against us and says…we declare back, but God’s Word says…!”

   v. Helmet of Salvation
Elsewhere in the Bible, this is called the helmet of the hope of salvation.  This armor piece is our hope of future reward that empowers us to say no to immediate gratification of every desire so we can live a life of holiness and sacrificial love.

  vi. Sword of the Spirit
This is the only piece that Paul clearly defines, and it is only one of two offensive weapons mentioned, namely God’s Word and prayer.  The Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God, but not just the Bible sitting on a shelf, this is as worthless as a sword still in its sheath!  The word “Word” in this verse is literally the “Rhema” of God, the spoken, proclaimed Word of God.  We must declare the Word of God to ourselves to others, over evil, darkness, and sin.

So, we are called and commanded to live life in a perpetual posture of standing in the strength of our Lord and in His mighty power by living as Spirit-filled, God-adopted, missional Christians!  And then, from this position of being strong in the Lord and in His mighty power we are to enter into battle through all manner of prayer!

  vii. Pray…pray…pray…pray…pray…
Five times in just three verses, 18-20, we are commanded to pray, pray, pray, pray, pray!  Life and love are war and prayer is our battlefront!  Our three enemies of our sinful self, the ungodly current world system, and the domain of darkness will do everything in their considerable power to keep us from praying!  Don’t be surprised that you find it hard to make time to pray or even to enjoy praying!  But decide this day…decide if you are going to live a defeated, fruitless life, or if we as a church are going to continue on the path of decline, or are you and this whole congregation going to become people of prayer and a house of prayer?