Boot camp is tough, especially for Marine recruits. I learned by reading a former Marine that if you want to succeed at boot camp and not just survive, you probably ought to train for about six months before you head off to that 12-week boot camp. You should be able to run three miles in 21 minutes or less. You should be able to shoot a rifle and take it apart and put it back together. You should be able to do 20 pull-ups and 25 push-ups and 100 sit-ups. You should complete some basic martial arts training. You should be able to swim and tread water for 10 minutes. They are called Marines for a reason. You should know certain military lingo, like the rank structure, the difference between a squad, a platoon, a company, and so on. You should know some basic American war history. And if you're a city boy and you never were a Boy Scout, you need to learn some basic outdoor survival skills. Boot camp is designed to take wimps and turn them into warriors. prepared for battle. And here at the end of Paul's letter to the Ephesian church, he calls us to a type of boot camp. He calls us to be prepared for battle, to be prepared for spiritual warfare. And this call to battle is a little bit surprising at this point in the book. I mean, Paul has been talking about everyday Christianity for more than two chapters by this point. He's talked about how we're to walk worthy of Christ in our everyday lives, including what that looks like in our marriages, and in our homes, and in our workplaces. And then all of a sudden, it seems, Out of the blue, here in chapter 6 and verse 10, Paul assures us that spiritual warfare is part of normal everyday life for those who follow Christ. Can I repeat that? Spiritual warfare is part of everyday life for you and me if we follow Jesus Christ. When we turned from our sin to trust Jesus Christ, to follow Jesus Christ, we became the bitter enemies of Satan. And if we will not fight this fight, then we will suffer defeat spiritually, day in and day out. Now, Paul outlines what it takes to be prepared for battle. Here in Ephesians 6, 13, that's going to be our focus today, verse 13. But as I begin this morning, I'm going to again read the first four verses of this section so we get a running start into that text. Ephesians 6, beginning in 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 we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Now Paul begins verse 13 by addressing why we must be prepared for spiritual battle. Why we must endure something like a boot camp. You'll notice the word therefore at the beginning of verse 13. There are five expressions in the original language from which the New Testament was translated that can be translated therefore. But the one used here is the most extensive of those terms. It's actually two words in the original language and it can be translated because of this or on account of this. Two of the modern versions translate it for this reason. And so Paul here clearly intends to cast our minds back to the previous verses because they explain why we need to take up the whole armor of God and be prepared for battle. And in those previous verses, verses 10 through 12, we find two reasons. Two reasons we need to prepare. Two reasons we need to go, as it were, to a boot camp. First of all is our enemies. Our enemies. That word, therefore, calls to mind everything that we talked about last Sunday. Satan and his fallen angels. have set up a worldwide shadow government. They see themselves as world powers. They lay claim to authority over every nation on earth. And they have not a military force, but a spiritual force to back up those claims, a spiritual demonic Gestapo, if you will. They oppose everything and everyone who is of God. They stand behind every false god and every false world religion because their ultimate goal is to steal the glory that belongs to God and to lay it at the feet of Satan so that he will finally be like the Most High. Now in our strength We do not have the resources to withstand these spirit forces, these spirit armies of this shadow government, and that brings us to the second reason that you and I need to go to boot camp, as it were. And that's our strength. Verse 10 assures us that we do have the resources to face these foes in Christ. In fact, before Paul says anything else in this entire section, he tells us that we must be strengthened in the Lord. We must be strengthened in Christ by the power of His might. It's by abiding in Christ. It's by depending on Him by faith. that we will overcome our spiritual enemies. You know, we sang a lot of songs this morning that talked about how victorious we are. Well, we're only victorious as we intentionally depend on Christ for the victory. We can't do this in our own strength. And specifically, we draw strength from the Lord by taking up the whole armor of God. Verse 11 says that, and then verse 13 repeats it. We have the resources to do battle with these demonic forces. by putting on the whole armor of God. And each piece of that armor is explained in verses 14 through 19, and we'll talk more about that armor in a moment. But that armor is the resource that the Lord Jesus supplies to his followers, to those of us who are in Christ. He supplies the armor, but we need to learn what each piece is there for, and how to use it in battle. Just like a recruit at boot camp learns to use his weapons. So that brings us to what we learn in boot camp. What we learn in boot camp. We train to use the whole armor of God. Let's talk about this armor for a few moments. Not the individual pieces. We'll do that in coming weeks. But the armor as a whole. Now, whole armor is actually one word in the original language, the word panoplia, from which we get our English word panoply. And I'll give a Snickers bar to anybody that's used the word panoply in the last 10 years, besides reading scripture. It's just not one of those words that we read very often or use very often in our conversation. Okay. What did you use it in? Ah. Okay. Yeah. Pan means what? Pan is the prefix that means all. And so the idea here is that we need all the armor. We need every piece. We just sang a song a few moments ago, Soldiers of Christ Arise. The second stanza of that hymn goes like this, Stand then in His great strength, with all his strength endued, and take to aid you in the fight the panoply of God." The third stanza of that song begins, leave no unguarded place. And the idea behind the songwriter there is if we put on all the armor, if we put on every piece of armor, there will be no unguarded place. And then notice that Christ provides us with the armor of God. I never knew this before this week, before my study this week, that this armor is actually first mentioned in the Old Testament in the book of Isaiah. And here's what it says. Then the Lord, and this is Yahweh, This is Jehovah. Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his own arm brought salvation for him. Now this is in reference to Israel. His own righteousness, it sustained him. For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head. That's the way Yahweh is described in the Old Testament as going to war in order to redeem and save Israel. And today, that armor, the very armor that God Himself has taken up, He now gives to us. And so we must train with every piece of equipment, every weapon that God has given us. You know, many of us love the story of David and Goliath. But before David faces Goliath, there's a scene that we read in Scripture that's comical. When King Saul hears that David is willing to face Goliath, he has him brought to his tent. And he quizzes him and when he learns that David has killed the lion and killed the bear as he tended his father's sheep, well then he says, let me put my armor on you. And I would have liked to have seen that. I've always thought that David was probably about my size and Saul was probably about 6'4 or 6'6 and I could just imagine what David looked like with all that armor on him. I wish I had a picture that I could show you like that. But what did David say when Saul put his armor on him? He said, I cannot go with these for I have not proved them. Now what does that mean? It means something like this. I can't walk. I can't walk in these things. I've never had any practice with these things. I'm not trained to use these things. And I wonder how many Christians are in exactly that spot with the armor of God. We've not ever trained to use them. We've not ever practiced with them. In coming weeks, we're going to talk about each piece of the armor. And Lord willing, I'm going to try to explain how we need to train with each of those pieces. Because if we do not train, if we do not practice, they will do us about as much good as Saul's armor did David. That's why we need to go to boot camp. And then verse 13 says that we must give our all to complete this training. Notice the final phrase of our text in verse 13. And having done all to stand. Now this is Paul, the drill instructor if you will, calling us to give 150% to completing this training. Give it your all. That final phrase there can be translated, having prepared everything, having prepared in every way to stand, having completed full preparation to stand. Let me ask you something. Have you ever put any effort And I ask myself this question as I've been studying. Have I ever put any effort into taking up and using each piece of the armor of God as it's described in this passage? In coming weeks, that effort is what I will be commending to you and explaining to you. Now it's a big deal when recruits finally successfully complete their training. They have a graduation ceremony similar to a college or university commencement. Thousands of family members come. They have an entire family day, the day of commencement, that marks the moment. You see, they don't call the Marines until this moment. They're recruits. And it's only after they have, and by the way, the graduation, the day of graduation, or the couple of days before that, they put them through what's called the crucible. And it sounds as bad as it is. Or it is as bad as it sounds. And when they've made it through that, then they are pinned. They are awarded the eagle, globe, and anchor emblem, and you can see it on the hat, on the brim of the hat. And that pin indicates that they have completed their preparation and they're ready for battle. And what Paul is emphasizing in verse 13 is that we've got to make it to this point. We've got to complete our spiritual preparation for battle. We need to know how to use every piece of the armor that God has given us. Now let me make one further point about what it takes to complete this preparation for spiritual battle. This observation is not from the text here in verse 13, but it is supported in other New Testament passages. But long experience has taught me that I think I need to talk about this character trait at this point. We need self-discipline to complete our training. Self-discipline. How many of you know a former Marine? OK, many of you do. What are those ex-Marines known for? They're probably known for a lot of things. I went and read a blog out there, and they're known for a lot of things. But they have a motto, once Marine, always Marine. And part of being always a Marine is that structure, that discipline that they learned in boot camp. It's with them for the rest of their lives. They have an ingrained self-discipline that pays large dividends in the lives of many of those men and women in their civilian lives. Now, self-discipline is the most underrated character trait in our culture today. Because you see, for many people, self-discipline is exactly the opposite of the way they want to live. They want total freedom. They want the freedom to do whatever they want, whenever they want, with whoever they want, and they don't want anyone to tell them anything different. That's the watchword in our culture today. Let me be me. Let me tell you a secret. Don't tell anybody else. Normally, the less self-discipline a person has, the less successful they will be in just about every avenue of life. Once upon a time, God came to Solomon and said, ask what you will of me. And he asked for wisdom, and I think that was a spectacular request, because I find myself often asking God for wisdom. But I wonder if Solomon wouldn't have been better off to say, give me self-discipline, Lord. He probably would have been better off later in his life. A lot of us need self-discipline. And I can tell you this, many of the pieces of armor, not many of them, but some of them, we will never learn to use properly if we don't have some self-discipline. The supreme value of self-discipline is not just my opinion. The New Testament commends it. In 1 Timothy chapter 4, But reject profane and old wives' fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come." You'll notice that both of those verses use the word exercise. Now that word that's translated exercise in the original language is the word gymnazo, from which we get our English word gymnasium. It speaks of the self-discipline that was needed by athletes as they prepared for the ancient Olympic Games. I get the idea that the Apostle Paul was a fan of the Greek Olympic Games in ancient Greece. And I think the Olympics may well have been in his mind when he penned these verses. The training of an Olympic athlete can be summed up in one word, self-discipline. Every day they train and they practice for hours. They train and practice despite how they might feel. I saw an interview some years back with an American gymnast, and she talked about how gymnastics was no longer any fun. It's a matter of self-discipline. There will be many Olympic athletes that get up tomorrow morning, Monday morning, and they will not at all feel like eight or 10 hours of training and preparation. But that's what they'll do, because that's what it takes to win Olympic gold. It takes self-discipline. I've heard it said that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master any skill. Whether that's an athletic skill, whether that's a musical skill. I have a friend who's become an author in his retirement and he's writing fiction in a certain genre. And he told me the other day that he has reached the threshold. He's made $100,000 on what he's written, which sounds like a lot, but he's written a lot of books. And I congratulated him. And you know what he said? He said, they say no one is an author until they've written a million words. Self-discipline. I say again, with some of these pieces of equipment, with some of these weapons, we will not learn to use them if we don't have the self-discipline to prepare. And so we'll be talking about that in coming weeks. So, verse 13 goes on. to offer us some additional motivation for this self-discipline, this training, because it details when we will need what we learn in boot camp. When we will need it. Notice what our text says. We need to train to take up the whole armor of God so that we may be able to withstand in the evil day. In the evil day, what's that talking about? You know, there have been a lot of soldiers down through the history of the United States of America who trained for battle. Some of them went to West Point. They were ready for war and peace broke out. And so they never made it into battle. The evil day never came. But I can tell you, the Apostle Paul promises us here, the Lord promises us, the evil day will come for us. Now that phrase, the evil day, can mean several things. First of all, it can mean any day that we are under personal attack by Satan. You remember we talked about this last Sunday, hand-to-hand combat, probably not with Satan himself, but with a fallen angel? Now that attack is not constant. Why do I say that? I say that because Satan is not omnipresent, he's not omniscient, he's not omnipotent. And even with thousands of fallen angels who follow him, Satan is not able to attack every believer all the time. He can't do that. Rather, what the New Testament pictures to us is that each of us will experience periods of temptation, periods of hand-to-hand combat with a fallen angel. with these spiritual forces of wickedness. Think about Jesus. There was a specific period after his baptism, after 40 days of fasting in the wilderness, when Satan believed that he was at his most vulnerable, and Satan came and focused his temptation on Jesus. The night before Jesus was crucified, He told Peter, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat. And Satan did indeed sift Peter like wheat that night and he denied Jesus three times. There have been times in my life when I've called up my best friend and asked him to pray for me because I felt that I was under the direct attack of Satan at that time. That's when training in spiritual boot camp pays off. When we've learned what this armor is and how it can help us to overcome Satan. and be victorious in hand-to-hand combat spiritually. It's also probable that by the evil day, Paul had something more general in mind. I think he had in mind this entire age in which we live, this entire worsening age. In Galatians 1 and verse 4, Paul calls this present evil age. Now it's interesting, if you talk to theologians, they say from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ until Jesus Christ comes again, they call that the church age. This is when Jesus is building His church. And yet as I reminded you last Sunday in 1st John chapter 5, it's during this age that we're told that the world system is under the control of Satan. And the New Testament teaches us that this age in which we live will spiritually become worse and worse. it will degenerate and decline as we get closer and closer to the return of Jesus Christ. Let me read a couple of passages with you. 1st Timothy 4, now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith giving heed to the idea there is deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. What's that talking about? It's talking about the fact that the attack of the enemy will intensify as this age goes on. Second Timothy theory, but know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. My point is that as the age goes on, as things get worse and worse, we need to make sure that we know how to use the armor of God. Satan's battle against us will intensify. He will find more and more human allies as this present evil age goes on. And then. history will culminate in the most evil day, if you will. We call it the tribulation period, the seven-year period before Christ returns in glory to set up his kingdom on earth. I don't want to get sidetracked right now into discussion of prophecy, so let me just read one passage that describes this final evil day that is yet future. let no one deceive you by any means for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed the son of perdition who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he sits as God in the temple of God showing himself that he is God I don't have time to dive into this but this man of sin this son of perdition The book of Revelation calls him the Beast. Other books in the New Testament call him the Antichrist. This verse refers to what will happen in the middle of that tribulation period when he claims to be God and sits in the temple in Jerusalem as God desiring to be worshipped. He will be directly controlled by Satan. I believe that he will be inhabited by Satan so that Satan is seeking to gather the worship of every human being to himself. That is the culmination of this evil day. Now, I believe that if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, if you know Jesus Christ, you won't be here for that day. But those who are still on earth at that time, who are faithful to Christ, they will need every piece of the armor of God as they stand against the onslaught of the beast and the false prophet and Satan himself. Now, no one enlists in the armed forces to remain in boot camp month after month. to keep on training. The point of boot camp is to prepare soldiers for battle. So this verse speaks to one final aspect of our lives. How we enter the battle after boot camp. After we've completed our preparation. We are called then to stand and withstand. You see that in verse 13? Stand and withstand. Now That's not what I would have expected Paul to say here. I would have expected Paul to say something like, therefore put on the whole armor of God so that you can attack and overcome Satan. That's not what he says. He just calls us to stand. See, we don't have to attack because Satan is going to attack us. He walks about like a roaring lion, seeking who he may defile. We're simply to stand and not give an inch. That's what that means. Puts me in mind of World War I. Trench warfare. where they battled for just a few feet of land for days and months at a time. God says, stand and don't give one foot, don't give one inch. That's the idea. The next time Satan attacks you, the next time Satan tempts you, Think about the fact that you don't want to sin even once. Because if you sin once, that may open the door. That may give Satan a toehold, then a foothold, then a beachhead. Give him not one inch. Stand. And then the verse goes on to say, withstand. And the word that's translated withstand can also be translated resist. And it's used twice in other places in the New Testament. Notice, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may defour. Resist him! Steadfast in the faith. And we're given the promise that if we do resist him, resist the devil and he will flee from you. If we can learn to use the armor to stand and resist Satan, we're promised victory. Now before we close, I want to change the focus just a little bit. I want to pan the camera just a few feet. Paul tells us to stand and resist rather than attack Satan. And I believe that's because God doesn't want Satan to be our primary focus. Ever. We talked about this a little bit at the end of the service last Sunday. I asked, how often do we need to pay attention to Satan? And I counseled you by pointing to the Lord's Prayer that I think at least daily we ought to pray, Lord, deliver me from temptation. Deliver me from the evil one. But we don't want to spend all day thinking about Satan. See, we can fall in the ditch on the other side of the road. And there are Christians that you meet like this. Their lives are consumed with Satan, and thinking about Satan, and battling Satan, and they're all taken up with that. Folks, our focus needs to be Jesus Christ, not Satan. So let me summarize how I think our stance is supposed to be. as we live our daily lives in two words build and watch. Build and watch. The picture that has been in my mind this week as I have thought about this message comes from Nehemiah chapter 4. Some of you remember the story of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was the cup bearer of King Artaxerxes. He was a very important man in that kingdom. And God paved the way for him to return to Jerusalem to help the Israelites there rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah organized the Jews and they began to rebuild and they began to see success. They rebuilt the walls to halfway of their height. And that got the attention of the enemies of the Jews in the area. The Samaritans and the Arabs and they began to plot to secretly attack Jerusalem. Stop the building, tear the walls back down. Somehow Nehemiah heard about this plot. And here's what Nehemiah chapter 4 says was the response. So it was from that time on that half my servants worked at the construction while the other half held spears, shields, and bows, and wore armor. And the leaders were behind all the house of Judah. Those who built on the wall and those who carried burdens loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at the construction and with the other hand they held a weapon. Every one of the builders had his sword girded at his side as he built. And the one who sounded the trumpet was beside me. They had a weapon in one hand, a trowel in the other hand, They built while they were prepared for battle. In Matthew 16, Jesus promised, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I believe Jesus is executing on that promise today. Let me ask you, how does Jesus build his church today? How does Jesus build his church today? He builds his church through us. That's what we're to do. Go therefore and teach all nations. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Teaching them whatever Jesus commanded. We're to evangelize. And then folks that come to trust the Lord, we're to teach them what Christ said. We are to build the church. That's what we're supposed to be about. But as we do that, we need to have a spear in one hand and a sword buckled by our side. We need to build, but we need to watch as we do. In a moment we're going to sing a hymn that begins with the words, Am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the Lamb? Am I a soldier of the cross, follower of the Lamb? See, in this battle, it's black and white. You are either a soldier of Christ or you are under the thumb of Satan. part of the world system serving His ends. There is no in-between. There is no spiritual Switzerland. Nobody can remain neutral. And if you're here this morning and you feel like you've been trying to remain neutral, you can't do that. And so the question is, Have you trusted Jesus Christ to forgive your sin? That's why he died. Think about it this way. Would you rather serve Satan, whom Jesus called a murderer from the beginning? Or would you rather serve Jesus Christ, who was willing to die on the cross in your place to bear your sins? It's that extreme of a choice. And if you've never trusted Jesus Christ, if you've never said, Jesus, I want you to forgive my sins and save me, I'm going to follow you, Jesus, then you need to say that to Jesus right now. And maybe some of us need to say it to Jesus again. And then a second question. If you said yes to Jesus, yes, I'm a follower of the Lamb. Are you prepared for battle? For the next few weeks, Lord willing, that's what we're going to do. We're going to prepare for battle. We're going to learn what each piece of armor is, what we need to do to use it, to put it on, to take it up. And so, would you be prepared? Would you say yes to, yeah, whatever it takes, I will be prepared. Heavenly Father, I pray for anyone here today who's not trusted Jesus Christ, turned to follow him, to make him commander in chief, to fight with all they have against Satan and his hordes. And so I pray for every heart. And I pray, Lord, that in the coming weeks we would understand how you have equipped us for this spiritual battle, Lord. For I pray all of this in Jesus' name, amen.