Text: Ephesians 6:10-18 Christ Our Armor
Finally,
my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and
in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that
ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God
that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to
stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on
the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye
shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And
take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of
God: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the
Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all
saints;
We
have been admonished, To lean not unto our own
understanding which seems simple enough but this is a journey that is a
life-long struggle and requires us to truth the LORD every day. Jesus
commanded us to, seek
ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness. Here we
have been admonished to “seek” which implies a continuous effort and a
never-ending process of learning--it is a life-long study. The Word
of God gives us the means to develop the art of spiritual self-defense.
The Christian is in a daily battle fighting the enemy of the soul. The
only protection against defeat is in knowing the Word of God. It would be
foolish for someone to say they are not interested in being thorough in their
understanding of how to live a victorious life in Christ Jesus. Being faced
with an enemy that is experienced in spiritual conflict the challenge for us
today is to master the Word of the LORD.
The Battle Begins
Col 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
Col 1:27 to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
The
believer is saved from the power and bondage of sin, the carnal nature, the
devil, and supernaturally empowered with the Holy Spirit. The power of darkness
is anything that blinds a person to the reality of sin. It is the power of
darkness that blinds a person to his or her need for salvation, and from
receiving God's gift of Holy Spirit. By the conviction of the Holy Spirit God draws the sinner towards Him by
the Light
that lightest everyone who comes into the world that leads to
salvation in Christ by the cross. The people of the world reject
the truth of Christ and are under the control or deception of the god of this
world, which is the devil. Scripture states,
1
John 5:19
"We
know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the evil one."
2Co 4:4 in whom the god [devil] of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them.
The Art of War
“But seek ye first the
kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and
all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matt. 6:33)
“These were nobler than those in
Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched
the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”
(Acts 17:11)
Without trying to over-analyze, the command “seek" it directly
implies an endeavor, to find knowledge that must be sought out by work and
discipline. In other words, it's a process, a path, a journey, a
continual quest.
This seems simple enough. But that's the whole trick isn't it? The key word here is
"seek." It should be indisputable that this skill is not to be
approached lightly. But when do you know you understand the righteousness
of God? I don't think we ever truly do, which is why the "seek"
part implies a continuous effort and never-ending process. We must
maintain an open-ended approach to a life-long study of the righteousness of
God. We should never become conceited in thinking that we have learned
all the skill which is to be learned
already, we are deceived if we think we understand all there is to know.
The subject "Art" here is our own focus on
self-development in a systematic methodology of the teachings of God’s Word.
There is no questioning the depth of wisdom and sophistication of fighting
knowledge contained within the scriptures. It's important
for us to explore. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to victory
or defeat. So, it is a subject of study which cannot be neglected.
Our
success is based on five conditions:
Personal
salvation,
- “Therefore
if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new.” (2 Corinthians
517)
Yielding
to the Will of God,
“Do not yield
your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but yield yourselves to
God, as one alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness to God.” (Romans 6:13)
Filled
with the Spirit,
- “But ye are
not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in
you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”
(Romans 8:9)
Studying
to be approved,
“Study to
shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)
Applying
the Word of God,
“Take heed
unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou
shalt both save thyself, and them that
hear thee.” (1 Timothy 4:16)
The
believer that applies and acts upon this knowledge will be successful in defeating the enemy of the soul.
The believer that ignores this will suffer defeat. Paul in writing to
Timothy advised him to take heed to his own life, and the doctrine or teachings
of the scriptures; he was to learn how to apply the principles of spiritual
warfare. By working to prepare ourselves to fight the good fight of faith
we obtain the abilities to execute the principles
of spiritual warfare.
The Enemy of the Soul
The enemy of our soul is Satan. Satan is the god of this
world system and is called “evil” in 1 John 5:19. Jesus faced the same
enemy as we face when he was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the
devil. We read,
Luke 4:5 - 8: And he [the
devil] led him [Jesus] up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a
moment of time. And the devil said unto him, To thee will I give all this
authority, and the glory of them: for it hath been delivered unto me; and to
whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship before me, it shall
all be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, It is written, Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
This position of Satan’s power and world domination was
acquired when both Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and
evil, being tempted of the devil in the Garden of Eden. The lure of the
temptation of Adam and Eve was to be like God. Satan hates God and His creation
and seeks to win humanity over for its destruction. All dominion over the earth
was originally given to Adam and Eve, but because of their sin, all of humanity
and nature itself fell under the destruction and power of the devil.
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so
death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: Rom. 5:12
The enemy of the soul first appeared to man in the Garden of Eden
when he deceived Eve into disobeying the LORD. God had given a command
not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. ”But you must
not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from
it you will certainly die." Gen 2:17 Eve being
deceived, disobeyed the LORD. “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food
and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some
and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate
it.” Gen 3:6
The result of just one trespass resulted in condemnation for all
people. By yielding to the enemy of the soul, by one man’s disobedience every
one now born into the world is born a sinner. So, by the sin of Adam
death was passed upon all mankind. All of us came into this world with a
desire to gratify the cravings of our carnal nature. James writes, “Then,
after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is
full-grown, gives birth to death.” This is how the enemy of our soul wages war
against us through the need to gratify the cravings of our carnal nature.
Satan lost the battle to dethrone God and was cast back to his
domain-Earth. He now attacks God by making war on humanity.
With this understanding of events, we can see that our battles in this
spiritual warfare come from principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and the
spiritual host of wickedness in high places. We are in a life and death
struggle against evil. The enemy of the soul is the god of this world—Satan.
From the moment Adam disobeyed the commandment of the LORD all of
God’s creation, the plants, the animals, sea life, and of course humanity
itself began to suffer and die. This account is found in the first 3 chapters
of the book of Genesis. The sins of Adam and Eve brought the curse of sin
to all the earth, in which we have our redemption only in Christ. It is
only Christ, the Son of God, Who suffered the penalty of this curse to set us
free and bring us back to God; therefore Christ is the only way in which we can
be saved.
Our Weapons of Warfare
The power of God is released, as we utilize every piece of the
armor of God against evil spirits, who are labeled by Paul as principalities,
powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness on high. We are asked
to prepare ourselves as soldiers in spiritual warfare, because as a forbearer
of God's truth and power, Christians and God's work are targets of the devil
for destruction. The intense hate of the devil, and his devil spirits against
God's creation is unimaginable, but nonetheless real, he is cruel and
merciless; however, he cannot defeat God, and therefore he uses trickery and
deception to defeat believers or draw them into vulnerable positions. Some of
these positions are: fear, doubt, confusion, condemnation, temptation through
pressure or pleasure, spiritual blindness, pride, affliction or persecution,
intended to frustrate the purposes of God through His people. He is
cunning and attempts to oppress us in our weakest areas (through our thought
life or other people and circumstances), in which the "unaware" are
led into chains of depression and other forms of bondage.
We have been commanded to “Put on the whole armor of God
that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” The armor
consist of having our, “. . . feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of
peace; the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word
of God: We are to, “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with
truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; which is also referred
to as the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of
salvation. This is the armor that will quench the fiery darts of the
wicked-“Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to
quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” “The night is far spent, the
day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put
on the
armor of light.”
When we are equipped with the armor of God the power God
protects us against evil spirits, the principalities, powers, rulers of
darkness and spiritual wickedness on high. We are asked to prepare
ourselves as soldiers in spiritual warfare, because as a witness of God's truth
and power, Christians and God's work are targets of the devil for
destruction. The weapons of the devil are: fear, doubt, confusion,
condemnation, temptation through pressure or pleasure, spiritual blindness,
pride, affliction or persecution, intended to frustrate the purposes of God
through His people. He is cunning and attempts to oppress us in our
weakest areas (through our thought life or other people and circumstances), in
which the "unaware" are led into chains of depression and other forms
of bondage.
If we fail to use the protection that God has given us we
will find that we are no more than the amusement of the Satan. The conflict
will vary; however, if we rely on our strength, we will fall into an endless
pattern of defeat, being victimized by the same snares or traps. Often, hostile
situations may reoccur because the spirit forces behind a condition are left
undetected, and by relying on our human wisdom and strength, we are left
without a solution to our problems. We must attempt to identify the area of the
enemy's infiltration. We need to keep in mind that we are never told to
remove the armor of God; it is a way of life for the Christian.
The Armor of Light
Theology According to Truitt
Put on the armor of light. And
do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to
wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we
first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put
aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let
us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in
sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather,
clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to
gratify the desires of the flesh. Rom 13:11-14
While preparing a series of messages on spiritual warfare, I ran
across this passage of scripture. I am sure that we are all familiar with
the passage in Ephesians 6 that talks about the whole armor of God. In
fact, you may have had a Sunday school teacher who had you make all the armor
from cardboard and remember the verse that went with each piece of armor.
This passage in Roman is hidden in the message of how we should conduct
ourselves as Christians being people of the day and not of the night.
What started out as reading a few commentaries on the 12th
verse which took me on a wild ride of information jumping. You know where
you are reading something, and a new idea is presented, and you follow it, and
another new idea is presented. Well, this ride was an exciting
ride.
I was waiting for a meeting to start so I thought I would check
out some more on the “armor of light”. I was trying to find how light
could be the armor of the Christian. No luck. This got me to
thinking about when Adam was created-- how was he clothed? It has long
been taught that he was clothed in light. So, this started me on a new
search. But before I get to the interesting information let’s go back to
the command.
Christians are commanded to “put on the amour of light” and “to
put on the Lord Jesus.” What does this mean? To be clothed with a
person is a Greek phrase, signifying to assume the interests of another--to
enter his views, to imitate him, and be wholly on his side. Putting on
the armor of light is being clothed with Jesus Christ, signifies I have put on
Christ; and consequently, having the mind that was in Christ.
Christians are soldiers amid a spiritual conflict and must have
personal protection armor that they may stand against the enemy of the soul. A
Christian undressed is unarmed. The graces of the Spirit are the armor, to
secure the soul from Satan’s temptations and the assaults of this present evil
world. Put on the righteousness of Christ for justification; be found in him
(Phil. 3:9 ) as a man is found in his clothes; put on the priestly garments of
the elder brother, that in them you may obtain the blessing. Put on the spirit
and grace of Christ for sanctification; put on the new man (Eph 4:24);
get the habit of grace confirmed, the acts of it quickened.’’ Jesus Christ is
the best clothing for Christians to adorn themselves with, to arm themselves
with; it is decent, distinguishing, dignifying, and defending. Without Christ,
we are naked, deformed; all other things are filthy rages, fig-leaves, a sorry shelter.
"Put him on as Lord to rule you, as Jesus to save you, and in both as
Christ, anointed and appointed by the Father to this ruling saving work.’’
I think we get the point of how important it is to identify with
Christ. But what is interesting is that Paul would use the expression
“the armor of light.” The fact that God is light is important to our study of putting on
the armor of light. It includes a description of God's character as well as
implications for the life of Christian discipleship. In fact, the character of
God as light and the Christian putting on the armor of light has it foundation
in the creation of Adam. This is where I started down a long road of
inquiry.
Adam was created in God’s image and likeness which includes the
appearance of God. We can reason more of how Adam was before he fell into
sin by understanding how he was clothed in light. Adam was covered with
light as with a garment, similar to his God. Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, You are very great; You
are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering Yourself with light as with a
cloak, Ps.104:2
We also have seen that the Holy Spirit was indwelling in Adam when
he was created. God breathed into Adam and he became a living soul. God created Adam
in His image and likeness concerning his general shape (head, shoulders, hands,
and feet) plus Adam was emitting light in a manner like God and he was also
filled with the Spirit of God. The question that I had to ask myself was
where did the light come from?
This question side tracked me into searching for the answer.
Here is what I found. Fritz-Albert Popp thought he had discovered a cure
for cancer. It was 1970, and Popp, a theoretical biophysicist at the University
of Marburg in Germany, had been teaching radiology -- the interaction of
electromagnetic (EM) radiation on biological systems.
What Popp discovered was that benzo[a]pyrene (the cancer producing
molecule) absorbed the UV light, then re-emitted it at a completely different
frequency -- it was a light "scrambler". The benzo[e]pyrene (harmless
to humans), allowed the UV light to pass through it unaltered.
Popp was puzzled by this difference and continued to experiment
with UV light and other compounds. He performed his test on 37 different
chemicals, some cancer-causing, some not. After a while, he was able to predict
which substances could cause cancer. In every instance, the compounds that were
carcinogenic took the UV light, absorbed it and changed or scrambled the
frequency.
Popp kept wondering why a cancer-causing substance would be a
light scrambler. He began reading the scientific literature specifically about
human biological reactions and came across information about a phenomenon
called 'photorepair'. The quick summary of this phenomenon is that light
aids in the healing process of the cells. Well this led me to another
question, is there light within the body?
What is it that enabled the tens of thousands of different kinds
of molecules in the organism to recognize their specific targets? Photons
(Light) control everything in the cells of our body. Photons switch on
the body's processes like an orchestra conductor bringing each individual
instrument into the collective sound. At different frequencies, they perform
different functions. Popp found that molecules in the cells responded to
certain frequencies, and that a range of vibrations from the photons caused a
variety of frequencies in other molecules of the body.
Remember in the Gospel of John, “That was the true Light, which lights every man that comes into
the world”. If the cells of our body repair themselves
through a process of photorepair and light controls every cell within our body,
could light then play a major role in how man was designed? So, I asked
myself this question, does light play a part in our DNA?
To save you from all the scientific language let me cut to the
chase. One of the most essential sources of light and biophoton emissions
is DNA. DNA was like the master tuning fork of the body. It would strike a
particular frequency and certain molecules would follow. Our DNA not only
emits light but absorbs light as well. Our DNA is like an electric capacitor
which can store tiny amounts of electricity and then discharge it. In a
similar way, we can speculate that the light that was coming from Adam was not
being produced from his own self, but was first absorbed from God and then
reemitted, very much like how things glow in the dark. Glow-in-the-dark objects
need to be exposed to light, or charged, to glow.
Adam must have emitted large amounts of light or photons from his
DNA. When he sinned, the light that he received from God, the source of the
light, was presumably extinguished. Proverbs 13:9 says: “The light of the
righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked will be put out,” Then Jesus
spoke to them again: "I AM THE LIGHT of the world. Anyone who follows Me
will never walk in the Darkness but will have the LIGHT OF LIFE."
(John 8:12) In
HIM WAS LIFE; and the LIFE WAS THE LIGHT of men. (John 1:4
KJV)
The conclusion of Dr. Popp’s research was best summarized in his
own words, "We now know, today, that man is essentially a being of
light."
When Paul told the Christians at Rome to put on the armor of light
he was telling them to become a new creation. Our new man has been
created in God’s image – imagine that! We, as new creations are in the image of
the One who made us! Paul states that Jesus is the image of God: “He is the
image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation,” (Colossians 1:15
NET). Then he states that we are in that image using the same Greek word “and
have been clothed with the new man that is being renewed in knowledge according
to the image of the one who created it,” (Colossians 3:10 NET). We must not
forget, however, that Adam was originally created in the image of God. So, if
in our new man we will be like God (not be God in all of his glory, but like
Him!), then we must conclude that when God made Adam in His image or likeness
and Adam emitted light in a way similar to God. When Adam was connected
to the source he was protected from the enemy of his soul.
When we put on the armor of light we are connecting to the source
of Light and are protected from the enemy of our soul. Have you put on
the armor of Light?
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