Equipped for Battle: Embracing Spiritual Warfare

And this morning is covering the final portion of that letter, one that in many ways summarizes so much of what he is concerned about for the church, his parting words of wisdom and encouragement and establishment of the truth. And so this morning I begin with a summary of the things of God. First, God has no equal. Satan is created and he is entirely fallen. [00:25:53]

He is a finite entity. God, however, is eternal, everlasting. He's all powerful. He is all knowing. And by the mystery of his being, he is everywhere present. God is love. God is light. There is no one like him. [00:26:42]

Put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything to stand, stand firm then. With the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. [00:31:20]

In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert. Always keep on praying for all the saints. [00:31:53]

The question is, are we paying attention? Steve Gerbner, back in the 70s and 80s, just when the whole trend of if it bleeds, it leads on the news, began to do a series of studies with adults. Steve Magnus, a writer and author and coach wrote about this recently. He says, Gerbner was a pioneer and he coined the word mean world syndrome. [00:41:41]

And he essentially found that more people, the more that people watched local news in the 70s and 80s, he said the more anxiety they registered when studied. And then the more that they felt like in the report that their neighborhood wasn't safe, even though in their immediate experience, it wasn't unsafe. The more the news told them that they were not safe, the more their anxiety went up. [00:42:42]

The second kind of deception that Satan uses is in his regime is that because we fall into the deception that our, the battle we fight is against other humans, then the armor we need is not the armor of God. It's the armor of man. Frederick Buechner, in a wonderful piece about this passage, wrote this. He says, I don't need the armor of God. My problem is other people. I need the armor of man. [00:45:12]

So therefore, I'm going to gird my loins with wisdom. Wisdom, worldly wisdom, dog-eat-dog world. God helps those who help themselves. And I will fight for my place. Number two, I'll take the breastplate. I don't need righteousness. I need self-confidence. I have got this. I will win. And I will fake it till I make it. [00:45:43]

One of the things that he summarizes in this idea is the following. He says, people are always criticizing the advertising business for its implied promise that one who gets the best job or the prettiest girl is the one who wears the right clothes or uses the right toothpaste or drinks the right brand of vodka. But the fact of the matter is that although this is by no means a happy truth about our society, it is nonetheless very often not far from being true. [00:46:55]

In a world where the competition is fierce, to dress well, to be able to speak well on your feet, to be good at games may actually make the difference between winning and losing. In the war of conquest, the war against other people, in this war we all wage for a place under the sun. It is the armor of man rather than the armor of God that will serve you best. [00:47:49]

And although I cannot value that armor as highly as some would value it, I cannot mock it because the armor of man serves its purpose all too well and because I wear some of it myself and so do you. If the world is closed, if the armor is closed, then our battle is against other humans and the armor we should take on is the armor of man because on this side of the return of Christ, in the short term, the armor of man actually works because that's how the world works. [00:48:48]

But the world falls under the deception of the evil one. He wants us to believe this. And how much have we fallen prey to it? I know I have. And I guess you have too. But the third and greatest deception is that he doesn't exist. That Satan doesn't exist at all. Lewis wrote, There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. [00:49:59]