both under the weather, I guess today, Charlie was ill last week and Bonnie has it this week. So do pray for them and we will miss them today. Um, before we begin, if you didn't get a sermon outline there on the back table, you can grab one. But before we begin today, let's, uh, let me have you bow with me for a word of prayer. Father, we are so thankful this morning for the gathered church. We are thankful father for your word. Father, which is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. We're so thankful, Father, for this precious treasure chest that we have to dig into every Lord's Day morning and where we glean precious little nuggets of truth all along the way that feed our souls and change our lives. Father, we come to a very, very critical section this morning. And father, as we come to that section that is all about the enemy of our souls, the about enemy of God, we pray to you for the protection from him, from Satan and his demons that we will need father as we move forward onto this turf. And so we pray father this morning that not only would you protect us, but that you would begin to unfold and teach us the precious truth Lord, so that we can be, good and faithful soldiers in this battle, good and faithful soldiers of the cross for your honor and glory in the days ahead. Father, there is a great amount that you have yet to teach us here as we open this text. Would you get us rolling today off on the right foot, Lord, that we might see and understand these introductory things that need to be said about this great, great text of scripture. Teach us and help us, Father, We commit our time to you now, praying all of these things in Jesus, precious, holy and wonderful name. Amen. You want to have your Bibles open please to Ephesians chapter six, Ephesians chapter six. We come to the final major section today. We've been waiting for this for a long time. We come finally to the final section here in Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus, a section that is all about a very important subject. and that is the subject of spiritual warfare. Before I say any more about it, let me have you turn there please and pick up with me in verse 10. I'm going to read from there down through verse 20 as an introduction to our study today. Ephesians chapter six from verse 10 down through verse 20. If you have been a Christian for any length of time, this is a text that you will at least be familiar with as I begin to read. Paul writes in verse 10, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm. Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the spirit. And with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. And pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness, the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains that in proclaiming it, excuse me, I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Wow. So I often say when we open a new text, particularly a text like this one, where do we begin? Huh? Where do we begin? Um, I generally always, and I tell you this often, I, I generally always have that initial sense of being overwhelmed when I open a new text of scripture, as I walk into that room and just sort of look around and I see all of the, the fruit clusters hanging there. And yet we haven't picked even one of them yet. Where do we, where do we begin? Let me say folks is that I've sensed that overwhelming, uh, kind of feeling even more on this one than I have. on other ones. There is so much to learn in that text I just read for you. And you know what? It's all, every bit of it is critically important for our walk in Jesus Christ, for our worthy Christian walk. As we begin this morning, I want to emphasize for you just where this text stands in the grand scheme of things. The text that I just read for you is the main text in the Word of God on the important subject of spiritual warfare. Now, there are, of course, other texts that deal with this subject and that mention this subject in various ways, but what I want you to know and what I want to emphasize for you today is that this, folks, is the primary text. This is the classic text. This is the one above all the other ones in scripture that tells us how to wage that vicious war that we are in with Satan and his host of demons who are the avowed enemy of God and also the enemy of our souls, making it also then a critical text for every believer in Jesus Christ to be familiar with, to be acquainted with intimately, for every believer in Jesus Christ to know and understand. To put it another way, folks, this is one that we absolutely have to get right. It's one that we absolutely have to get right. And I want you to know as we begin on it today, that we're gonna do the very best we can. I'm gonna do the best I can in the weeks ahead to help you, to lead you, to guide you in that study. We are going to glean every ounce of precious truth from every precious verse of this text that God would have us to glean in the weeks ahead. But before we just jump right in there, you know, head first into that detailed exposition, I think a prudent way to begin this morning is to spend our time today on the runway. You know, before we get the plane in the air, like I always say, we need to spend a little time, uh, taxiing down the runway. That's how we often start out on a new text and that's exactly how we're going to start out on this new text is if you grabbed a sermon note on the way in or, uh, an outline, uh, you can see that we're going to go in two directions this morning. Um, I want to spend the bulk of our time today showing you how this teaching on spiritual warfare fits within the flow and within the context of Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus that we have been studying for so long now. How does this final section fit within the flow of all of those marvelous things that we have learned? And that's what I want to spend the bulk of our time on. And then as you can see, uh, when we get to the other end of that, toward the end of our time today, I'll finish up by giving you the basic outline I always look for the author's outline as we study these texts. And so I want to give you what I believe to be a fair representation of the author's outline of this text so that you will kind of know, you'll see the big picture. We'll chart the course for a study and you will see the big picture of where we're going in the days and weeks ahead. And so let's begin. As we begin to think now, about how this section fits within the context of Paul's letter. Let me draw your attention please to the very first word in verse 10, which is the word. Finally, notice it there. The beginning of verse 10, Paul starts out by saying, finally, I want to use that word finally as a springboard kind of, so get jumping here. We're going to, we're going to springboard off that word back into the earlier chapters of Ephesians where we'll then sort of work our way back up to that word finally again. But before we spring back there let me take a minute to talk a little bit about what that word means as we see it here in this context. Sometimes when we hear that word finally, what do we think? Sometimes when we hear that word finally, we understand it to mean that the sermon is almost over, right? There really is lunch somewhere in my future when we hear that word finally. This thing is beginning to wind down. Finally is a postscript kind of word that is usually followed by maybe an added thought, maybe a concluding thought. Sometimes that word finally is even concluded by or followed by an afterthought. And oh, by the way, What is said after the word finally is not necessarily unimportant, but it's usually not so much an integral part of the main message that's already been given. By the time someone says finally, the main message has already been given and what's said after that may be important, but the whole idea here is that the main message is going to stand just fine without that, whatever it is that is said after the word finally. Having said all of that, entertained all of those thoughts about what this word sometimes means, understand that it doesn't mean that at all here. When Paul says, finally, what Paul introduces here, with this word finally is indeed very much an integral part of the main message of this book and something that is critically important for your life as a believer in the flow of this book. And that's what I hope to show you today as we begin to walk through some of those things. I want to show you today, and demonstrate for you today the fact that we can not, what have we been learning about ever since chapter four? How to walk the worthy Christian walk, right? Let me say now that we, you, cannot walk the worthy Christian walk. You cannot live faithfully and obediently and victoriously for the glory of God, folks, without a clear, working, knowledge and understanding of the truth that we're going to learn now in Ephesians chapter six verses 10 and 20. And as I said, I want to illustrate that for you today. I want to emphasize that for you today. And the way I'm going to do that is by sweeping you back through some of the great things that we have learned in this book and kind of showing you along the way how they lead up and point to and land right here. in this last section. As we do that, as we go back and sort of sweep through Ephesians, it's going to serve pretty well as a review. And that's not completely inappropriate. We forget, don't we? Sometimes I forget what we talked about last week. And I know you do as well. And so it will serve us well as a review. But I want you to know that that's not primarily why I'm doing it. I'm doing it this morning. I'm taking you back through all of that so that you will be able to see how all of those things that we have learned in this book about what it means to be a Christian and how to live the Christian life all depend on something else that we haven't yet learned in this book and something that we will yet learn in this book in this section that I just read for you. Before we begin to wrap up our study of Ephesians with this word, finally, that introduces us to a monumental closing subject, I want to take the time to quickly sweep you back through a reminder of all the, it was a daunting task by the way. How can I get that done in an hour? But we're going to work on it. I want to take the time to sweep you back through a reminder of all of the other subjects in this book that have led us up to this word finally in this great closing subject. Let me just say, before we do that, let me just say that I hope we're kind of beginning to wrap this book up, right? I hope the truth in this book of Ephesians has forever changed your lives because it has mine. And you know, I often said that about the book of Romans, I began my ministry here at Faith Bible Church in the book of Romans and we went five years waltzing through that book of Romans. I think probably now it might take me longer. I don't know, but we did it in five years back then. Um, and it changed my life. The truth in that book changed my life and the truth of this book has changed my life and I hope it has for you. I knew that we had been here in Ephesians for a long time, but I didn't realize just how long we had been here until, uh, week or two ago, I guess it was, I got rooting around in an old box of sermons in the closet in my study. And I put dates on these before I chuck them in the box. And we began this study in Ephesians on November 4th, 2012. So it's been a long time. We've been here for a long long time. That's a long time to remember. And so let me take this opportunity to just sort of sweep you back through, uh, just some of the things I can't hit, hit them all, but I want to hit at least some of the highlights in this book with the goal of using that to prepare us now or to propel us, if you will, into this last great section. Here we go. Um, turn with me please to chapter one. Let's go back to Ephesians chapter one. And here's what we're going to do. I'm just going to, I'm not going to get it all. Believe me, I'm not going to get it all, but I want to touch down here and there in various places and help you to try to help you anyway, to remember just a few of the important things that we have learned in this book. As we work our way back up, remember where we started? We started with that word. Finally, that's where we're going. We're going to go all the way back up to that word. Finally, again, in chapter six and verse 10, one of the, let me start by saying this, One of Paul's major themes in this letter that we intersected with right away and what is of course the most important subject in all the world is what it really means to be a Christian. What it really means to be a Christian. We learned that, didn't we? Right here. in this book of Ephesians in the very first chapter. In fact, the first three chapters, as you recall, remember how the book is split down the middle, the first three chapters in this book are all the doctrinal chapters. where Paul goes into a great amount of detail explaining who you are and what you have as a believer in Jesus Christ and how you became a believer in Jesus Christ. Would you agree with me that those are foundational things that every believer in Jesus Christ ought to know and understand way down in the bedrock of his or her soul? Those are foundational things that every believer needs to know. We found, we learned them right here in this book of Ephesians. And yet, perhaps you recall, I pointed this out to you along the way. And yet, as we learned about those things, we found them to be quite different, didn't we? From how those things are so commonly understood by so many people in the evangelical church today. What it says in the word of God differs from that tragically. in a lot of ways. And some of those ways are going to be highlighted here this morning. So let's go back to the question. What does it mean to be a Christian and how do you become a Christian according to Paul, according to the scriptures? Be reminded now of how Paul answered those questions for us right away in Ephesians chapter one. In fact, let me say that this is one of the most important things that God wants all Christians to know and understand. And we got it. only four verses into this letter. If you are a true Christian here today, that is something that was determined by God. Paul says, I didn't say it. Paul said it. I repeated it. Paul said it. If you're a true Christian here today, that is something that was determined by God. Paul says in Ephesians one, four, before you were even born. Isn't that boggling your mind? It still boggles my mind. And in fact, we could even take it further than that. Not only did it happen before you were born, if you're a true Christian here today, your salvation, the word of God says was determined by God before even the world was born. How's that? How's that? It's boggling to the mind, but it's true. That's what the word of God says. Now there will of course be a saving act in time. And we're going to talk about that later this morning. Certainly there will be. But the point now is to say, in Ephesians chapter one of verse four, the point now is to say, the deal was as good as done way back there before the foundation of the world. The deal was done. It was a done deal. Which immediately, and you know, when we read and study the word of God, and we come to these great statements of doctrinal truth, we have to step back from them and draw conclusions, don't we? What are the conclusions? Well, let me tell you some conclusions. Immediately, when we understand what that word just said, it immediately tells us something about our great salvation, doesn't it? Something that flies right in the face of what is so commonly being taught about that subject in the average evangelical church today. I had you mark this before. Now I'll have you mark it again. Our salvation folks was accomplished entirely by God without any help from you. Our salvation was accomplished entirely by God. You're not going to hear that everywhere you go today, but that's what you're going to hear in the word of God. Our salvation was accomplished entirely by God without any help from us. He did it all. And why do I come to that conclusion from Ephesians one four, it had to be that way because when it was determined, we weren't even there. Were you there before the foundation of the world? I wasn't there, but I was there in God's mind. Um, which is another mind boggling thought. What else do we conclude when we read stuff like this? Um, after we get back up off the floor, right, what else do we conclude? Well, we conclude that apparently he knew everything there was to know about you back then, right? He knew your name back then. He knew about your personality way back then. He knew what you were going to look like way back then and eternity past. He had your hairs all numbered, right? Some have more, some have less, right? He had them all numbered. Um, and way back then when he knew all of that about you, what does the Bible say? He made a determination. He chose you to be what in him. That is Christ way back then. He chose you to be in him. Insofar as our salvation is concerned, the only rational conclusion that can be drawn from this text I just alluded to in Ephesians one is that he does it all and we do nothing. Now that's disputed hotly in the evangelical church today. And if you ever begin to doubt that in your mind, if anybody in the modern evangelical church, uh, today ever comes along and tries to convince you that this doctrine of election simply isn't true, I've actually heard people in the evangelical church say, if I had to believe that doctrine, I would go out of the ministry. Well, you better get packing. because the word of God says it's true. If anybody tries to convince you that this doctrine of divine election isn't true, just go back and spend some time again in Ephesians chapter one. There's no other conclusion that can be drawn. God does it all. And so far as our salvation is concerned and we do nothing. And if you're there in chapter one, let me read just a few of the verses for sake of our study. And for the sake of time, I'll just read a few of the verses four to seven verses four to seven. just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. Now listen, folks, I don't know, where do you go with that? That's either true or it's not. It's either true or it's not. I happen to believe it's true, thus saith the Lord. In love, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise and the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the beloved. We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. That's a power packed doctrinal statement and what it means to be a Christian. And it's pretty clear, isn't it? It's all clear. Let me summarize it for you again real quick. And then we need to move on somewhere way back in eternity past. It says, God, the father chose us. What does that mean? He selected us. Another way to say it is he elected us to be in his son so that we would be Holy and blameless before him. God does the saving and what is the goal? Holiness is always the goal. That's why he saves. Saving is done entirely by God and holiness is always to go. That's, that's how the Bible says Christians become Christians. And that's also why Christians, the Bible says that Christians become Christians. God, the father chose us in him before the foundation of the world so that we would be holy and blameless before him. And then verse seven, and then verse seven, I'm going somewhere here. I want you, I want you to see the Trinity in this thing. And verse seven, it says that the son redeemed us through his blood. Four verses in, we know that God chose us seven verses into this book. We intersect with the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross of course is yet another very significant part of what it means to be a Christian, isn't it? But when the fullness of the time came, it says in Galatians four, four and five, God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law so that he might redeem those who are under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons. God, the father chose us for salvation way back there in eternity past before the foundation of the world. The son came along in time and redeemed us by his blood for the sake of time. I'm not going to keep reading right now, but if you do, if you want to go home and keep reading, do, uh, if you were to go on reading in chapter one, You would see the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit also involved in our salvation. What does he does? What is, what did he do? He forever seals us as belonging to God and is given, it says there as a pledge of our inheritance, a down payment, if you will, an engagement ring is what that word means. And so, um, I could keep going. but I have to keep going here. So I'm not going to keep going there. And so let me just conclude this first part here in Ephesians chapter one by saying that before we are out of Ephesians chapter one, we understand something. We understand that the triune God is involved in our salvation. The triune God, is the author of our salvation. Our salvation, according to this book of Ephesians was accomplished entirely by the sovereign God, a sovereign God who manifests himself in the three persons of the Trinity. Let's go on. Chapter two, flip back another chapter. Um, in the first half of chapter two, now, uh, we got a further explanation. I've got to remind you of this. We got a further explanation of how our salvation was accomplished and who did what to make it happen. If you're still sort of sketchy about that whole thing from chapter one, which I don't know how you could be, but if you are chapter two seals, the deal from eternity past and chapter one, chapter two now brings us all the way into time. As you glance at the beginning of chapter two, I want you to notice that now at the beginning of chapter two, you and I, have now been born into this world. We're here now. Okay. We're here now at the beginning of chapter two. And even though we've already been chosen in him, what did we say when we were there? Even though we've already been chosen in him before the foundation, we don't know that yet. We're oblivious to that. We don't know that yet. And so when we're born into this world, we're born the same way as everyone else. We're born into this world at the very same state and condition as everyone else who was born into this world. And that's not a very good state and condition. Not at all. Do you remember when the first three verses of Ephesians chapter two, we got a vivid description of that horrible state that I hope you will never forget. I'm going to read it for you here a minute, but this is who you are, who you were rather. This is what you were and this is how you were when you were born into this world. And if you're a Christian here today, what I'm going to read to you right now in the first three verses of this chapter is why you ought to be the most thankful man or woman on the face of this earth. Remember that we went over this and over this and over this. This is Paul's description of every person who is apart from Jesus Christ. Listen, as I read it and you were dead, that is such an important word in this discussion. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature, children of wrath, even as the rest. I remember being in that description for the first 26 or 28 years of my life. I forget how old I was in 1983. but for that many years of my life, I, that was me. That was me. And that was you before God saved you. Part, you see, part of what's involved in understanding what it means to be a believer folks is understanding what it means to be an unbeliever. And this is Paul's description of every unbeliever, including you and including me before God saved us from Ephesians two, one to three. Here's what we understand. And here, and I know we said this back there when we were there. Um, When you were born into this world, you were physically alive, but spiritually dead. When you were born in this world, you were physically alive. You were moving around, you were walking and talking, but you were at the same time spiritually dead. And please understand again, what I emphasized for you many, many times when we were there in that text, what does that mean? Dead means dead. Dead means that there, there, there aren't various definitions of what it means to be dead. You're dead or you're not dead. They're not varying degrees of deadness, nor are there, nor is there any such thing as someone being partially dead. You're either dead or you're not dead. And what does the Bible say here before salvation? You were what? Spiritually dead. And what does that mean? What is the implication of that? Well, listen, remember what I said about who does what in the saving act a little while ago, If you were spiritually dead before God saved you, what does it mean? It means that you were completely, at that point, you were completely unable to respond to any spiritual stimuli. What does it mean? In more practical terms, it means that a spiritually dead man cannot respond to the gospel. A spiritually dead man cannot repent of his sins, and a spiritually dead man cannot exercise faith. If dead means dead, firmly believe that dead means dead, then what Ephesians 2, 1 to 3 is saying is this, before your salvation, you were dead, which means that there was no hope for you apart from someone else stepping in to do for you what you could not do for yourself. Aren't you thankful for your salvation today? If you were dead, There was no hope for you apart from completely apart from you, apart from someone else stepping in to do for you what you could not do for yourself. If you are here and among the redeemed today, praise me to God. Someone did. And would you pick up with me in verse four now, you know, I'm going to land on this, didn't you? Um, I'm going to read from verse four down through verse 10. Now, and you're going to see again in very clear and certain terms how someone becomes a Christian. You're going to see yet again, who does what in the process and you're going to see again what it always results in when it happens. This is the doctrine of salvation as revealed in the word of God. When you were born into this world, you were spiritually dead and slaved by the world and as ruler driven by your own lusts and on your way to hell as a son of disobedience and a child of wrath. What does it say? I hope you have those first two words of Ephesians 2, 4, underlined, circled, or highlighted, or whatever you do. But God, but God intervened. Remember I said a minute ago, you were hopeless apart from someone else stepping in to do for you what you couldn't do for yourself. He did. But God, right here it is. But God, it says in verse four, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, And then just to emphasize this again, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, who made us alive together with Christ, but God made us alive together with Christ by grace. You've been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. And then we have these familiar verses for by grace, you've been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one may boast. And by the way, can I mention something right here? By the way, right there in verses eight and nine, you have the answer for all of those people who want to fight, dig their heels in and fight against that doctrine of divine election. God didn't choose me. They will say, I chose him. I'm the one who decided to put my faith and trust in Christ as my savior and Lord, as they so commonly say, I heard the gospel. I weighed all the options, thought it all through, and then I exercised my human will and I put my faith and trust in Christ. Did you hear me? How many times I said, I, I, I, I did this and I did that. I made that decision as they call it today. And that's why I'm a Christian. And, and listen, we recognize that there is that human responsibility side to salvation. I tell you this all the time. It's there. That side is there. And at the time, at the time, it may seem to you like that's the only side there is. It may seem to you that you did it on your own, but what did it just say at Ephesians two, eight, It said that even the faith that you exercise was what the gift of God didn't say that. I think it said that for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Listen, people, the faith you exercised in response to the gospel was a gift to you from God, from the God who had already chosen you before the foundation of the world and the God who had just made you alive together with Christ in time. And if you want a good verse that puts the whole thing together, let me give it to you. How about John's gospel chapter one, verses 12 and 13. You know what happens here? Many times people just read verse 12, but let me read both of those verses. And I think you'll see how this thing works or begin to see a little bit about how it works. But as many as received him, verse 12 says to them, he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name. That's clearly the human responsibility side of salvation, isn't it? You do have to receive him. You do have to believe on his name. But now let me ask the question, how does that really happen? Okay. It says that there, how does that really happen? Who are the ones who are going to do that? Who are the ones who will receive him and believe on his name? If you stop at the end of verse 12, you missed a very important truth. We can't stop there. because the answer to that next question comes in verse 13. The ones who will receive him and believe in his name in verse 12 are the ones, according to verse 13, notice what it says, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. I think that's clear, don't you? And so when we come to the end of this thing, you really didn't make that decision on your own like you thought you did, did you? No, you didn't. Um, and that's okay if you think you did, but you didn't, you will learn as you begin to read and study the word of God, you will understand that salvation comes from the human side through repentance and faith. And we know now that the faith is a gift to you from God. But what about that other parts? You know, we talk about repentance, turning from your sins, 180 degree turn, turning from your sins. We talk about repentance and faith. We know now that the faith is a gift to you from God, but how about the repentance? Could that maybe be something that you do all on your own? Could that maybe be something that you produce on your own? No, afraid not. As Peter was reporting to the brethren in Jerusalem about how God had used him to take the gospel to the Gentiles, listen to what he said in Acts 11, 18. He said that God had granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life. Aha. So that comes from him too, huh? Well, you'll learn all about that later on. It doesn't matter if you know about it right now, when God saves you, but you'll figure that out later on as you begin to read and understand the word of God, that he is the one. No matter if you thought in the beginning that you were responsible for doing it, you'll realize later on, no, he did it all. He is God. He is sovereign. He is the sovereign God and he's sovereign over salvation. And so from this book of Ephesians, we have understood the doctrine of salvation. And the most important thing about it to remember from this book, folks, is that God does it all. Never forget that. You are not your own savior. You are not your own savior. God does it all from beginning to end. And so where does that leave us? Where does that leave us? Well, I'll tell you where it leaves us. Right where we ought to be. It leaves us right where God wants us to be. We humbly bow in his presence, folks. We fall before him as people who owe him literally everything we are and everything we have. We miss Charlie. If Charlie was here today, you know what he would say? God is everything, and I am nothing. He tells me that all the time. He's told me that ever since we said that. And I know he believes it. God is everything, and I am nothing. That truth, that salvation truth is here for us to understand in the earlier chapters of this book of Ephesians for a reason. It's here, folks, because it's the only motivation. Think about it. Understanding how your salvation came about That's the only motivation that will effectively drive the service and obedience that's called for in the latter part of this book. That makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, after what he's done for you, then at all, after what he's done for you while you were dead and his about enemy, after what he's done for you in light of what you deserve, how could you possibly respond in any other way then by loving him and serving him with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind. How, how could you see that's the basis. The understanding of salvation is there in the first three chapters because that's the only motivation for the service and the worthy Christian walk that is called for in the second half of this book. Well, we have to move on. We're still in the first half of Ephesians chapter two and, and I didn't get to verse 10 yet. So look at verse 10. I want to land on this one for a minute because verse 10 gives us a clear statement about the reason why God made you alive together with Christ, right? In verse five, he made you alive together with Christ. Why did he do that? It's right here where we learn another important point in the doctrine of salvation. True salvation, now get this, a lot of confusion about this. True salvation is never obtained by good works, right? You can never obtain salvation by good works. But the flip side of that, what do we say is true? What does the word of God say is true? True salvation always results in good works, right? For we are here and look at verse 10 for we are his workmanship and just stop right there a minute. A minute. We have another affirmation of what I just said. Um, who's the one who did it all? God did it all. What does it say right there at the beginning of verse 10 for we are whose workmanship? Well, you know, For we are a God, God cooperated with me. Um, no, no, no, no. That's not what it says for. We are his workmanship. He did it all. I got us one who did it all, but we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. Why here now is the reason. And this is another awesome thought. You know, that being chosen before the foundation of the world just blows my mind. I can never get my mind around that awesome reality. He did that. That's how much he loved me. He chose me for the foundation of the world. Here's another one. Why were his workmanship created in Christ Jesus? Why? For good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. You ever think about that? That's profound, isn't it? What does it mean? Well, it means that God had a, we've talked about it, it means that God had a very specific and detailed plan for your life and mind way back there when he chose you before the foundation of the world. He had a job for you to do, very specific job for you that only you can do way back then in his mind. That's the mind of God. That's the mind of a sovereign God. And then he saved you in time, made you alive together with Christ in time so that you would do what? So that you would walk in those good works throughout the course of this life for his glory. God has work for you to do. You need to know what it is and you need to be about it because the time is short. This life is a vapor. It appears for a little while, it's vanishing away. It's only here for a little while. James is another one who affirmed his salvation truth in James 2, 17 and 18. Even so faith, James says, if it has no works is dead being by itself. But someone may well say, you, you, you remember this, this hypothetical dialogue, but someone may well say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without the works. and I will show you my faith by my works. Again, the point here is to say that true salvation is never obtained by works, but it always results in works. That's the reason why God saved you for those good works. Moving on now, let's keep going. Moving on to the last half of chapter two, Paul begins to expound upon another major theme in this book of Ephesians, a theme that he introduced at the end of chapter one when he said that God gave Christ as head over all things to the church, which is his body. Remember that? Um, what's another major theme here in this book of Ephesians? The church is another major theme in this book of Ephesians to be in Christ is to be a member of his church. You can't separate those two things. And in the last half of chapter two, now Paul begins to give us the details concerning that church. And it's right here where I'm going to have to start picking up the pace just a little bit on this sweep through Ephesians and this more recent stuff. You'll maybe remember better anyway. From the last half of chapter two, We began to understand the details of this church that is the body of Christ. From the last half of chapter two is where we learned about the Jews and the Gentiles coming together who were, who for centuries had been at enmity with one another. Now they're, now they've been brought together. It says in the church, which Paul described, remember how he described it as the one new man, that is the church there at in chapter two. And then at the very end of that chapter, If you recall, he went on to describe the church as a kingdom, as a building, and as a holy temple in the Lord in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the spirit. I wish I could elaborate on all of that, but that was all there. And hopefully you remember at least a little bit of it. At the beginning of chapter three, we need to keep moving. Paul continues to unfold the doctrine of the church, describing it there now at the beginning of chapter three as a mystery that had been given to him by revelation from God. Remember, our discussion of that. What is a mystery? A mystery in the new Testament, as you may recall, is something that was unknown in the old Testament. Old Testament saints knew nothing about this one new man that is the church. And that's precisely the point now that Paul makes in Ephesians three, four to six. Follow us. I read those verses. By referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the spirit. To be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. The church was a mystery unknown about in the old Testament revealed, given to Paul by revelation from God. And that's what he's talking about here. in chapter three. Paul is the one who gives us the doctrine of the church in the last half of chapter three. Then I hope you remember this. Paul bows his knee to pray for our enablement. We took that prayer request line by line, if you recall. And by the way, I didn't mention this when we were at the end of chapter one, but at the end of chapter one, After unfolding all of that great salvation doctrine, Paul prayed another prayer there. Two prayers in Ephesians, one at the end of chapter one, one at the end of chapter three. Chapter one, Paul prayed that we would know that we would comprehend what is the surpassing greatness of God's power toward us who believe. And here now in chapter three, he prays a prayer for our enablement. And let me just tell you the final request. It was sort of a building, sort of a prayer. And we talked about all of those things, but it was a prayer that culminated, in this request, that we might be, do you remember? Filled up to all the fullness of God. Let me say to you now as we move towards chapter six, that being filled up to all the fullness of God is our awesome potential as believers in Jesus Christ according to Paul's prayer for us. But mark that now as a potential that will never be realized apart from an understanding and an application of the truth that we're now going to get in chapter six, verses 10 to 20. Moving on to chapter four, and I'm really going to pick up the pace now even more. Moving on to chapter four, we hit a major turning point in this book. If you recall from a doctrinal emphasis to a practical application emphasis. And there was a major lesson for us to learn even in that order of things. There is no point in talking about morality and behavior. There is no point in talking about the good works of Christianity until there is Christianity. You can't have chapters four to six in this book until you've had chapters one to three. What did we learn? What did we talk about? The man has to be changed on the inside first, right? That's what we learned in this book. The doctrine always has to come first. The new birth has to come first because that's the only thing that can ever produce good works that are truly good works. Remember what Jesus said to the rich young ruler? The rich young ruler came to Jesus and he said, he called him good teacher. Jesus said to the rich young ruler in Mark 10, 18, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. What did he mean by that? The only truly good works that ever exist, folks, are the ones that are produced by God. And so unless God is there living within you and producing those works through you, mark this, they are not truly good no matter what they are or how they look to other people. And let me just say something that people always have a hard time with. Philanthropy by unbelievers is never truly good. philanthropy, no matter what kind of philanthropy. I mean, I don't care if they give thousands and thousands of dollars to people who desperately need it. If that's good from a relative human perspective, right? But it is not truly good and it is completely unacceptable to a holy God. As I said, a hard one for people to grasp sometimes, but it's true. Romans eight, eight says those who are in the flesh, what cannot, please God. There's absolutely nothing they can do to please God. True salvation has to come first. The old man has to be crucified with Christ and the new man has to be created and only God can do that. And when he does, now the issue, when that new man has been created, now the issue in this book of Ephesians, as we go into chapter four, um, turns from salvation, which was the first three chapters. Now in the last half, it turns from salvation to those good works that now listen, that now have the potential to be truly good after salvation. The focus, as you know, now turns to the worthy Christian walk. And that's what we've been learning about ever since the beginning of Ephesians chapter four. We've learned how to, just think about it. We've learned how to walk in unity. We've learned how to walk in humility. We've learned how the church has been designed by God to equip us for works of service, to equip us to exercise our spiritual gifts for the common good of the body. In the middle of chapter four, if you recall, Paul called on us to walk no longer, just as the Gentiles also walk. And as he elaborated on that, we came face to face again with a couple of serious enemies to the worthy Christian walk. Enemies that we had already been introduced to in chapter two, enemy number one is the world all around us. And enemy number two is the yet unredeemed humanists within us. And what does the Bible call that? The flesh, the world and the flesh learning how to deal with the flesh then became the subject at the very end of chapter four, where Paul called us, called on us. You remember this to put off the habits and characteristics of the old man and to put on the habits and characteristics of the new man. Moving on to chapter five, we learned how to walk in love, how to walk in light, how to walk in wisdom. And then don't ever forget this. We came to that monumental statement of verse 18 that called upon us to be filled with or controlled by, that's what it means. Controlled by the Holy Spirit of God. who came to permanently live within us at salvation, being filled with a spirit is a critical state of being for the Christian that will radically transform all of life and living for him as well as all of his human relationships. And as you know, this is real recent stuff. Paul went on from the middle of chapter five through the beginning of chapter six to explain what it means to be a spirit filled husband or wife. to be a spirit-filled parent or child, to be a spirit-filled slave or master, sections that we just finished up with recently. And all of that now, much, much more could be said about all of those things, but all of that now brings us right back up to where we started this morning, in chapter six and verse 10, to that word, finally. After spending nearly four years soaking in the richness of this book, You might wonder at this point, what more could there be? I mean, uh, what more is there that could possibly need to be said about living the Christian life? We know now how we became Christians. We know now about the surpassing greatness of the power that is working toward us who believe, but we know now that we can be filled up to all the fullness of God. We know a whole bunch about how to walk the worthy Christian walk. And we even know quite a bit about a couple of enemies to the process. Paul has said quite a bit of these first five and a half chapters of Ephesians, hasn't he? About the world and the flesh. But I want you to mark this now as we move into this new section, Paul said quite a bit about the world and he said quite a bit about the flesh. I said earlier that I wanted you to see this morning how this final section fits within the context and flow of Ephesians. And this now is it. There is another enemy. to this whole process called the Christian life. There is a major enemy, folks, that Paul hasn't said anything about yet in this letter. And that enemy is the enemy that we just met earlier this morning as I read Ephesians 6, 10 to 20. With the word finally, Paul introduces us to a critical subject that hasn't been dealt with yet at all in this book of Ephesians, and it's one that quite frankly has to be dealt with or the whole wonderful thing gets stopped dead in its tracks. Apart from dealing with this subject, you and I will find ourselves quickly on the sidelines. That's what this is all about. The true Christian who is described in Ephesians 1-3 and who is walking the worthy Christian walk as described in Ephesians 4-1-6-9 can be assured of fierce opposition from a very powerful enemy who has a very powerful and highly organized force of demons who do his bidding all in a war that they will wage against you that you cannot see with your eyes. It's probably good that we cannot see with our eyes or we would be terrified. I'm sure we cannot see this war and this enemy with our eyes. So far you understand from Ephesians that you have all the resources you need. all the power you need and all the instructions you need to faithfully live the Christian life. But now as we approach this new text, you need to know that faithfully and obediently living that life is not just going to be an easy stroll through the meadow smelling the flowers. Not at all. Right now you are living for a very special purpose in God's plan on enemy territory. This world is a spiritual war zone. The Bible refers to it as the cosmos in 1 John 2, 15 to 17. It's a world system is a good way to understand that cosmos. It's a world system with Satan as its present ruler and that world system along with this ruler, folks, stands in fierce opposition to everything you stand for and everything you do in obedience to God. When you begin to appropriate the spirit's power, and start walking through this world in humility and unity and love and light and in wisdom. And when your relationships with your wife and your children and your boss begin to work in the way God says they ought to work for spirit-filled people, then you can be absolutely certain that you will have conflict and opposition all along the way. Opposition on every single turn. Paul wants you to know as he ends this letter that the very powerful and invisible forces of hell will try to shut you down on every turn as you would seek to live and obey everything that he's taught you up to this point in this letter. Before he closes the letter, he wants you to understand the reality of the spiritual war that you're in as well as how to wage that war. Listen, if we had only one word with which to describe the Christian life, this side of glory, a very good word would be the word battle. The Christian life is a battle and Paul himself is one who often, referred to it as that. He said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2.3, suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 1.18 and 6.12. He told Timothy to fight the good fight. And then perhaps you remember at the very end of his life, he said this to Timothy. 2nd Timothy 4 7 I have looking back he said I have fought the good fight I have finished the course I have kept the faith Paul understood that he was in a battle every day and you need to understand that as well every day you live and The Christian life is like walking through a minefield with snipers all around you, snipers, invisible snipers who belong to a supernatural realm. And there's much, much more that we need to talk about, uh, with regard to all of those subjects. But let me just begin to, to, I need to give you the outline here, but before, let me mention one more thing, something that is a tragic reality folks in the in the modern evangelical church today is the fact that the vast majority of the people in those churches who profess to know Jesus Christ are completely oblivious to this battle that we're talking about, to this battle that they're in. Some of the ones, of course, that I'm talking about are not really in the battle. A good number of those folks in the evangelical church today, because of the watered down gospel and all of that, are only professing Christians and not real Christians. And so they're not even in the battle really. but even a good number of the ones who really are in the battle still live on a daily basis without any consciousness of the battle they're in at all. They live their Christian lives at a very superficial level with their mindset most, if not all of the time on the things below instead of on the things above. And so would you mark this important truth as we approach this text? If you don't know you're in a battle, if you don't know you're in a battle, you've already lost the battle. If you don't know you're in a battle, you've already lost the battle. And I hate to think about this, but it's true. What I just described for you is what tragically accounts, I think, for the vast majority of the enemy's victories. He wins by default because his opponents don't even know he's there. They don't even know they're in a war. And so we have open before us this morning a section of inspired truth that is absolutely critical for us to know and understand and apply to our lives as we seek to live obedience to the word of God and for the glory of God. And believe me when I say that there will be opposition, even insofar as that understanding is concerned, our gathering and learning and understanding this truth will arouse opposition. I am sure the enemy of your soul does not want you to understand the truth in this section of God's word, perhaps more than he doesn't want you to understand the truth in any other section of God's word. And so what do we need to do? We need to commit right now to be diligent, we need to be vigilant, we need to be faithful, we need to be persistent, and we need to be, above all things, prayerful as we move ahead into the truth of this text. Because the beam of judgment and the glory of God are at stake. He has called us to be soldiers in this war. When you signed on, As a believer in Jesus Christ, you were enlisted in this war. You're in this war, whether you realize it or not, you need to realize you need to wake up. And of course the call to battle comes first. But before I show you the outline, and I will, um, there is just one more thing you need to know about it as a whole. And let me just emphasize this for a minute and then we'll look at the outline and quit. Please understand that this instruction on how to wage the spiritual war against the enemy of your soul does not represent just one of the ways to wage that war. We can do it this way or maybe this way or this way. No, no, no. No, this is not just one of the ways. How many ways are there to be saved on the wall above you, right? There's only one way to wage this war, and it's the way this text represents the only, not just one of the ways, it represents the only way to successfully wage this war. Let me say to you, maybe you're aware of this, there are lots of books out there. It's a very popular subject, spiritual warfare. Lots of books out there that have been written on this subject. There are lots of sermons that have been preached on this subject, but tragically, much of what's out there falls into the category of bizarre things and very, very unbiblical things with regard to this subject. The likes of which you will find on TBN, for example. Perhaps you've heard professing Christians or even pastors talk about their encounters with demons and how they Go out looking for demons and talking with demons and rebuking demons and binding demons and you've heard all of that stuff. Ordering demons around in the name of Jesus Christ. Let me say to you straight up on day number one in this series, all of that is absolute foolishness. All of that is absolute foolishness and none of it, none of that kind of stuff is anywhere to be found in that text that I just read for you a few minutes ago as we began this morning. And you also need to know that what I read for you in that text is the biblical way and the only way that God has provided for us to deal with the enemy of our souls. And how about this for a real condensed nutshell version of what we're going to learn? How about this? This is a text that could be well summarized. I mean, there's lots more detail, but if we were going to boil it all the way down, as far as we can boil it, we can say it this way. It could be boiled down to four simple commands. How are we to deal with this enemy? Be strong, stand firm, put on the full armor of God, and pray at all times in the spirit. How's that? That's a summary. Let me say it again. Be strong, stand firm, put on the full armor of God, and pray at all times in the spirit. That in a nutshell is how we wage this war against Satan and the forces of hell. And let me take a few minutes now in closing to give you the outline I want you to see the big picture here. This is the outline we're going to follow as we study down through the verses. And I believe it's a good representation of Paul's outline. By way of outline, this text is really very simple. There are three major divisions. Let me give them to you. And I'll read the text again as we go through it. And the first four verses, we have what we're going to refer to as the believer's call to battle, the wake up call, Paul blowing the bugle, if you will. Um, let me read it for you again and then we'll break it down even further. Verses 10 to 13, the call to battle. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm. Now let me break that down a little more. Five things happen in these first four verses that will become five sub points for us and we'll take them just one at a time. In verse 10 we have the preparation. Paul's going to tell us there how to prepare for the battle. The beginning of verse 11 he's going to tell us about God's provision for the battle, which is the full armor of God. And then at the end of verse 11 we're going to get introduced to the enemy for the first time and his strategy. Paul refers to him as the devil, and his schemes, major subjects, both of them. In verse 12, Paul is going to define the battle for us with a great amount of detail. We're going to see the hierarchy there and the forces of hell. And then in verse 13, he will go on to define the victory that is ours. That's the first major section. Okay. From the believers called the battle. Then in the first four verses, Paul goes on, and verses 14, 15, 16, and 17 to a second major section that we're going to call the believer's defensive strategy in this spiritual war. And it's here where he's going to go on to give us a very detailed description of the full armor of God. Now he's already mentioned it in the call to battle. and he's told us to put it on and take it up. But when we get to these verses now, he's going to really give us the full blown description of that armor. And let me read it for you. Pick up with me in verse 14 as I read down through verse 17, stand firm, therefore having girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. That is so rich. That is so rich. There's so much there. We'll be there for a while. Just know it now that we're going to be there for a while as we get on through the, we're going to take all of these individual pieces of armor. When we get there and do the best we can to understand what they all mean and how they all work, because it's critical. We have to, right? We have to know this stuff. We have to understand what this is and how it works. Um, for now, just understand that none of these pieces of armor work. and isolation from each other. How does Paul refer to it as the full armor of God, right? We're to put it on, Paul says, the full armor of God with the implication of that being that it all has to work together and that it only works together. It comes in a complete set and that's how we need to have it. And then we have one third and final section that I want to point out to you here. And this spiritual warfare text Paul finishes with the believers offensive strategy. The believers call the battle, the believers defensive strategy. And then he ends with the believers offensive strategy, which interestingly has to do with what prayer has to do with prayer. Now there is a sense, and we're going to talk about it. which the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, does have some offensive properties. But that having been said, it still is listed there in the defensive section or the section that describes our defensive armor. And so mark something right now. It'll be a while before we get there, but mark this right now and think about it this week. In this passage on spiritual warfare, prayer is the only is the believers only listed offensive strategy. That's significant to note right now. Prayer is the believers only listed offensive strategy. Now I think I've said this to you every time we've studied this subject of prayer here at faith Bible church over the years, which has been quite a few times that prayer is, I believe the greatest and yet most untapped resource among Christians in the church today. And I wish I could say that I'm not indicting myself, When I say that, but I can't. Prayer is the greatest and yet most untapped resource among Christians in the church today. Um, before we're done with this section, we're going to be talking about the subject of prayer again, particularly as it relates to spiritual warfare. But we're going to be talking about prayer again before we're done with this text. Prayer is your primary offensive weapon against the enemy of your soul, the forces of hell. And let me read that now. Uh, those final three verses. With all prayer and petition, Paul says, pray at all times in the spirit and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints and pray in any issues of personal request and pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. for which I'm an ambassador in chains, that in proclaiming it, I may speak boldly as I ought to speak." There you have a new text out on the table. Spend some time this week, if you would, reading and rereading and rereading and praying and thinking and meditating down through this great text. And we'll plan to begin, Lord willing, our verse-by-verse exposition next week by looking a little closer at the believers' call to battle that begins right there in verse 10, join me in prayer. Father, we know that the truth in this text is critically important for us to understand and apply to our lives as believers in Jesus Christ. And we also know father that even our study of it is going to arouse opposition from the enemy. And so we pray father that you would illuminate the truth for us in the weeks ahead. by your spirit who lives within us. Teach us, Father, we desperately need to know what this text means by what it says in this context so that we can apply it to our lives with the power of your spirit. And we also pray, Father, knowing what we know about the subject matter, that you would protect us as we do so from the schemes and the strategies and the plots and the attacks of the enemy. Specific things, Father, that we would never be able to know about or anticipate ahead of time. Protect us, Father, and teach us. And we'll give you all the glory and we'll give you all the thanks for it all in advance, praying these things in the precious name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.