Spiritual Warfare

Ephesians 6:10‑18
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Address—B. Warr
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I'd like to read a few verses in the.
Epistle First epistle of John No, I was.
Out front there a couple nights ago or last night, I forget which, and there were some small kids. Children.
And somebody said, well, they I said, why don't you go in down to the singer said they're too young.
I said, well, I thought there was a young people singing so over there, too young.
So I got thinking about that, you know, and this second, in his first epistle of John chapter 2, we read about young.
Men.
And as I read it, you asked in my Maybe I'm too young.
Because there is a spiritual young, you know.
First John two and verse 13 in the middle of the verse.
I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one.
Verse 14.
Toward the middle of the verse I have written unto you, young men, because you are strong.
And the word of God abideth, and you have overcome the wicked one. Love not the world, neither things in the world.
Any man loved the world of the fathers not in him, for all is in the world. Thus the flesh, thus the eyes and the pride of life is none of the Father. But so the world in the world passes away, and the lust thereof be that doeth the will of God abide forever. First thing it tells us about somebody is young, and it overcome the wicked one.
Let's read the passage in Ephesians Six, well known to us all.
About.
That wicked one.
Ephesians chapter 6.
And verse 10.
Finally, my brethren.
Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil. For you 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 armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. And then back in chapter 3.
Of Ephesians.
Verse one for this 'cause I Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you gentiles. If you have heard.
Of the dispensation of the grace of God, which has given me to you word.
Well, in our chapter 6, I really want to speak about chapter 6, but I was thinking of it in this sense, if you have heard.
You are in a warfare.
You know this expression in chapter 3 if you have heard is not if you just happen to be where Pauls doctrine was preached.
It has a spiritual or moral significance.
Many places around read this book they don't hear about the dispensation committed to the Apostle Paul.
Well, I want to tell you there's something special in the Bible given to the apostle Paul that opens up heaven over our heads.
And if you have heard, he could say all haven't heard.
And whether you feel young enough to be in this warfare or not.
If you have heard.
You're in it.
And our enemy has no scruples. He never gives up. If you best him today, he never says you win.
Tomorrow, he's back fighting again.
He never knows, he never has any sense of right and wrong, and when you win, you never really win with him because he doesn't give up.
You know our Bibles tell us, resist the devil.
That sounds easy enough, doesn't it? And he will flee from you. It's been well stated many times. You never fight a conquered enemy and he is a conquered enemy.
And think of what he has to do. He has to persuade us to trade off.
The glories of heaven.
For the miseries of hell.
And is he successful?
Is he serious about it?
Am I serious about it?
I'm important to the devil.
I'm important to God.
Why? Because I've heard.
00:05:01
And if you have heard.
If you have heard, well, we read here finally. Well, it's the final end of the conference, isn't it? So he would add this last note. May we add it before God, my brethren, if there's someone here to whom I cannot say, my brother.
You know you're in danger, as we've heard in the conference, you're in danger of ending an apostasy because as we heard early in the conference, profession without reality is the road to apostasy.
And in apostasy, in dying or remaining in your unbelief at the coming of Christ, you join a man in the Old Testament named Abner.
And Abner died a fool's death. He said die of Abner as a fool, Dieth. He died right outside safety. He got very close to safety and didn't make it. Oh, if you have heard.
Have you heard? I don't mean to just sit there listening. I'm talking about the spiritual moral sense. Have you heard what's been said?
Because we've had some glorious things presented to us in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have, you're in this warfare and you say, Oh my, I don't. I don't know whether I can say I've overcome the wicked one and I'm strong and the word of God abides in me.
You're in the warfare. And so we're exhorted.
Here to take on the armor of God.
Because our enemy is very subtle and he knows exactly how to work you and work me to make a fool out of us.
Abner won't be the only fool.
Well, we can think of unbelievers, can't we, who are tricked into doom. The the classic one in the scriptures to me is a man named Herod who heard the word and heard the word and heard the word and one day he cut it off.
And why did he cut off the head of John the Baptist?
The devil just worked him right up into a corner and embarrassed him into hell.
He set him up on a fence and all his friends are looking at him and the devil flicked him into hell.
They cut off the head of John the Baptist that sealed his doom. The Lord wouldn't even speak to him when he came before Herod.
Life solemn.
Life serious if you have heard.
Oh, we've heard, beloved. We've heard. Now we're in this warfare. It's a serious thing. The enemy of our souls is serious. Every day he starts it serious. And you're important to him because he rules over in our verse.
12 over rulers of darkness of this world.
He rules over a realm of darkness.
But you represent a light to him, you have heard.
And when you have heard God's word and you say that's the word of God, oh, I take that in without reserve. It's God's Word. You present a challenge to him.
And there comes a time in an evil day.
We know what an evil day is, don't we? We've all read or heard about Job in our Bibles. An evil day came on Job.
Job was, as it were, turned over to Satan. Satan was allowed in on Job.
All but we did like to see him stand, don't we?
We did like to see him stand, just like we can sit and just mourn and just we're shocked at the thought of Hera just in an instant sealing his doom because he was too embarrassed, too proud.
You ever wonder how powerful pride is and how many people are sitting down unrepentant and they can't say I'm wrong because they're sitting in darkness and tied up in the chains of pride and the devil sitting there laughing at them?
You think it's not that strong in you and me? Oh, it is.
Oh, it is.
This so our enemy here, he rules over darkness and darkness is.
Lies. But you've heard the truth. I've heard the truth now.
And so as I come into his realm of darkness, as I am down here in the world, if the Lord so leaves us here.
I represent a threat to him. I'm light in the darkness.
00:10:01
And these powers, they are called principalities and powers and rulers.
These are God created.
Beings that are in rebellion.
And in their rebellion, they have nothing within themselves to restrain them.
And that's the way they would have us to be.
They would have us to be without self restraint, without any restraint or control within.
So what we're exhorted to be is strong in the Lord, and if we read over these things that would constitute our armor, it's going to talk to us about that which is within.
Now the Lord Jesus comes into this scene. Now if we think like some are led to believe by the enemy of our souls that oh he will bless his own, but he won't. He has no friends.
He's a great deceiver. Even if he could, he wouldn't bless. That's not him. You've got your enemy. You're wrong about your enemy. Unless you can really see what he's like, we really may not know what it is we're up against.
But anyway, the enemy of our souls is so well adept at his own.
Work that he has Wiles.
And if the word of God would tell me to resist the devil, what is he seeking to do?
To keep me from resisting the devil. If I resist him, he has nothing to say to me.
Now we can think about the book of Job and as we say, the devil just swept across Jobs life with terrible we call them tragedies.
Is that a conquered foe? No, no, this is not talking about his outward power to come against you or to come against me.
It's his inward power to deceive me that he's defeated.
You see that outward power He still has, and if God merely lift his hand off of anyone of us, he'll raise the nation against us.
Because that's what he did with Job. Wasn't he raised the Sabians and the Canaanites or something? Two nations he raised against Joke. He could raise this nation to bring the soldiers in on us. That's his world.
But God holds his hand over us and keeps us every day. If he didn't, we never make it through a day. That's the outward power that Satan has. But there is that inward thing and he tells us, be strong.
That we may resist. We start off with the Wiles of the enemy and they're all within. I can resist within and he's defeated. And really, if we stand like the the three in the fiery furnace, you know, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they were there with the Lord, weren't they? They knew how to resist the outward and they won. And God stepped in and manifested his outward power against the enemy.
But our place is like their place.
Someone was messing recently, they said. We don't know if God will deliver us or not. We don't know whether God will outwardly show himself against the enemy of our souls. But we know one thing We're not going to give in.
They resisted from within. Their fate stood firm and God stepped in. And that's with us. We may pass through a day and say, well, we don't know whether God is going to come in and resolve this great problem, but I know one thing, I'm not going to give in.
And then that path of faith we will find, like they found that the Lord was there, and not even the smell of the smoke passed on them. But I want to warn us again. We're up against strategies, stratagems and whiles and tricks from an enemy who has no scruples whatsoever. He'll use anything against you.
And he has one.
Goal in mind.
You know, I've often thought that as he came in on job.
He could kill all of Job's children, he could take away all he owns. But that didn't win the battle.
He had to make Job curse God.
And that was what would win the battle. And when it comes to you and me, what's the battle? How does he win? How do I lose?
Here it says stand.
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If I stand, I win.
Job stood, stood firm, and one the three in the fiery furnace, they stood firm. They won. You want to win?
Then stand against the Wiles of the devil now.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood and therefore, you know, we as young people, we, we are often concerned with macho and strength. And that's not what we that won't work. It's exactly what the enemy would like for us to do.
Is he get occupied with that as though that has merit in the warfare and this surely we have weapons here and we have a, you know, weapon of prayer and we have a weapon of a sword and so forth. But that isn't where he starts. He starts with you, me, you be strong.
You be strong.
And as we're strong, what that simply means to me is I stand in the presence of God.
And draw from him because it's strong in his power.
Now we know someone was pointing out to me recently something I really enjoyed that these are rulers of the darkness of this world, heavenly places. If you read the book of Daniel, and we certainly have time to look at it, but if you read chapter 10.
That Daniel prayed and the angels started fighting.
And three weeks later, an Angel fought his way through to answer Daniel's prayer.
You ever think that Someone Like You or like me could start a warfare, end up in heaven?
Oh, it's a battle. The truths that we've heard, if we want them, we have to stand. And Daniel's prayer stirred up.
Agitated heaven itself.
Job was a man who was walking along and never thought, far as we know, that heaven was looking down on him.
And that he would become the touchstone of a battle of heaven itself.
But you see, that's what's opened over our heads. And the minute you open up glory over my head, there's an enemy to come in to keep me out of that.
So it is serious if you have heard these things are real. So just the thought as we go through these and then we will.
We'll pass on. The rulers of the darkness of this world would tell us that wherever you go, I just had the privilege recently of going out to other countries. But wherever you go, behind them, there are other powers. Behind the President Reagan, there's other powers.
Wherever you go, there are other powers.
And God, of course, establishes rule and authority on earth and tells us to be submissive to the powers that be. But the enemy of our souls comes in, and if he can lead them astray, he seeks to use them to lead you and me astray.
So we must just remember where we stand. We stand in the enemy's world, where pilgrims and enemies world, and we obey the president, we obey his representatives, we obey that before God, realizing all along that there are other powers behind all this.
Now verse 13 take on you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. We spoke of the evil day and having done all to stand. I don't we shouldn't kid ourselves if my conscience tells me there's part of the army I don't have on.
We should not try to make it up by being over.
Active or overly concerned in another part of the armor. You can't leave off part of the armor and say I'm going to make it up by you can't. You got on the whole armor of God. It's a divine thing that he gives us as we read through it, a few thoughts.
Stand therefore having your loins gird about with truth.
I want to just say what a free thought about this. It's, you know, you got to be honest.
Am I really honest down here?
At the bottom of all my thoughts.
Am I really honest or am I kidding you? I'm not kidding the Lord, and I'm not kidding myself very much.
If you're not really honest, all the way down to the bottom of your thoughts.
That's where the battle begins.
Really. Are you honest? How many people's lives have been wrecked by something down in the bottom of their conscience? They never really faced up to and had out with the Lord, as we've heard things, and that would have cautioned us about this. But lives are ruined.
Simply because of not being honest in the bottom of your thought when you're way back in your own bedroom or whatever and nobody's around and all you're doing is thinking.
Because that's what gird about the loins means. The loins are the most private part of a person. And gird about means you get the truth down there. And whatever would seek to come out of the very bottom of your thoughts has to meet up with the truth of God and let the light shine down there and deal with God about that point of life. And that governs what comes up. I know.
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But that's where the battle starts.
Let us seek grace before God, never to kid ourselves, and never to kid anybody else, to live way down there in the light.
Breastplate of righteousness is simply do that which is right. All these things are practical. We're already saved and I know where I'm going to stand for the judgment seat. That doesn't bother me. But these are practical things. Do that which is right and it will govern your affections.
Because the breastplate governs affection.
It keeps the enemy from bringing something to the affections that would lead us away. And how many of us, you see probably have been tempted or had an experience where I love something too much? I had affection for something too much. It led me away from that which is really first priority.
Featured with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace.
You know, the gospel of peace and the Bible is presented in two ways, peace between man and God and peace between man and man.
Have your feet shodder 2 feet.
Kind of walk in the assembly.
You got to know what it is, the truth of the one body peace between man and man, because he made both one.
Is our peace, who hath made both one and reconcile both in one body to God, Peace between man and man, and peace between man and God, feet shod.
The preparation of the gospel of peace. So we don't just preach souls saved, right? We preach souls gathered.
What greater privilege could you have than to be gathered the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? It all is a part of God's truth and God's blessing. It all is a part of what He has to tell lost sinners.
Above all, taking the shield of faith.
And that's something that's not on me if something's out here. And that's what faith is, it's objective. It's something out there. 2 verses I'd like to refer you to and call out the shield of faith. You probably have others. Shall not the judge of all the earth do, right?
No matter what the enemy of your soul would fire a dart cause you to doubt. I wonder about this. And what about that? I should understand that all, but I know the judge of all the earth will do right?
For we know that all things work together for good, and that love God that called according to purpose.
Shield of faith, all things work to good. Any kind of a doubt or problem would arise and just raise that verse up. And it just not only wards off, it quenches the fiery darks. If there's a power that acquaints these doubts and these fears, just simply looking up to Him and taking His word and using it for my own soul's benefit to guard me against.
The things that the enemy would fire at me.
Helmet of salvation verse seven He takes the helmet of salvation. This is not just the fact I know I'm saved.
But it's that which guards my mind is the saddled assurance that I am saved.
In the power of Christ, who gives me liberty, salvation today from all the problems I have.
Now when I cover over my mind with that, what does it do? It stops me from free thinking.
I just bring it all to Christ.
And really, we have a world full of it's very modern day to be a free thinker, challenge everything, question everything.
But you can't do that. You see, we have the answer to everything.
And we come to this book and submit to it. We bow before it. That's all right, everybody, because I'm deliberately just governances. Well, I don't know about that, but that's all right, everybody, because I'm delivered from this. They say, oh, that's what happened to you. That'll happen to you. You better watch out. Nope, It's all well. You govern your thoughts and you don't allow your mind to run away into preoccupations or worry.
You know where you stand with God today, not just an eternity. You know where you stand today. Where do you stand today? Is there some problem plaguing you that's bigger than God?
Oh no, the guarding of those thoughts would be to know that salvation is I am saved, I'm being saved and will be saved. It's all part of God's work, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
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And that's used. And I would urge each one of us that if you can't go to Scripture and show somebody where you stand.
Need to be in prayer about it.
Why do you say where do you go to church?
Can you go to Scripture to answer that? It's not easy. Oh, why don't you do this or why don't you do that or what do you do this for? You go get you a verse and in the presence of God, you seek a verse for your soul. That's what that means. It's the sword of the spirit. It's the word of God. It's, it's a verse. The Lord Jesus used a verse against Satan and he just stopped everything. And when you don't have a verse, you see my, I don't know how to answer that.
You need to be in prayer about that.
And say be in prayer, because that's where all wisdom comes from.
Deal with God in your soul about it. Say why am I there? What am I doing? Get yourself a verse some of you can go to and say there it is right there.
And don't stop your exercise till you get one that satisfies your soul and something you can show to anybody.
They don't stop your exercise. Keep it up till you get your answer from God. He's there listening. Everything we, we, we think in prayer before him hears it and get it from God. That's where you that's where we deal with this battle. That's how we come up with what we need to fight the battle with praying always.
I guess the one thing that the enemy can do to us is that, oh, well, you don't need to pray about that. That's too little, you know.
You know, don't worry about you're just too busy today. You better get on that school, Oregon. You better go out to work. Oregon. It's too busy. You don't have time to pray.
But like some well stated, somebody said one time he went out without praying and said well I don't have time to pray this morning. So when everything went wrong that day, so next morning he said well I don't have time not to pray.
We need that praying always, because without that, you see, we are not that dependent one. We need to be dependent on Him and never, never think that He's not listening, because He is. Sometimes He waits to see if we really want to know or if we really want this answer. He waits us out. That faith can come into play, but He's always there and always wants us to stand, always ready to give us.
A verse.
Averse to stand on and how many things we have in our minds that are thoughts we've been taught over the years. But I can't go get a verse for it.
But in praying, that's one thing I should pray for. It's my own soul stability.
A verse from God that when somebody standing wants to argue me about, I standing with a smile and said I don't know about you, but I know where I got my verse from.
It is not a subject of contention. It's not something to argue about it. It's the subject of worship. You got it from God. And those kinds of transactions just bring forth, you know, indict a good matter. It brings forth worship before him. And people want to argue about this or that, but you don't have to enter into that. It's that's not a subject for argument. It's year before God. And that's where these battles will come in and praying always.
And with all prayer and supplication.
In the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for the gathered Saints.
No, you know, we have the truth of the one body.
For all things, may we never allow the devil to bring our hearts down.
To think that we're anything different, we're members of one body, and to pray for All Saints is what we should do as the light of heaven shining in then through us, in a reflection through us on earth. And well might it be said that we challenge the devil's realm of darkness because we're then a reflection of heaven itself as a reflection of man in the glory, the truth of the one body, and the fact that we're just not going to give in.
I'm not going to give up these things.
Stand is just not let the devil persuade you or me that a lie is the truth.
Because the power of darkness is his ability to persuade us that a lie is true.
And he knows how to do it as a master of the art.
Keep us We are in a warfare. It's a serious warfare, yet we have everything we need. There is nothing that we need tonight that we don't have. We have everything we need. Do we want to use it?
Because that's the next step is I get down to my will.
I really want to use it and if it costs me something that I want to use it.
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Because that's where the real battle lies, right in here. Well, shall we pray?
This is my story. This is my song raising my table all day long.
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This is my story. This is my song.
Breaking my danger.
Watching and waking, talking about.
Children watching the cloud. This is my story. This is my love praising my friend.
All day long, this is my story. This is my song.
All the day long.
My yearning heart and rest of God.
'S away. Everybody in the world was not to save you. Was my baby.
When I come to die.
All you think about it.
All the joy of having all the Jesus.
Will break the beginning.
Not adorable.