Archives For Ephesians Class

Spiritual Warfare of Prayer, Part 2

March 7, 2010 — Leave a comment

1.  By Always Being Able to Pray “Praying always”

2. By Praying all Kinds of Prayer “All prayer and supplication”

      (There are private, family, silent, audible, mealtime, congregational, set time, and emergency prayers)

     A. “Prayer” is a general word for prayer as in worship. We worship when we give to Him as Psalm 29:1-2 illustrate. This is stair step parallelism where “give” starts each of the first three lines and is repeated with additional information and climaxes in the fourth line with “worship” instead of “give.” The essence of worship is giving. When we pray we are worshiping Him or giving to Him our time, energy, praise, burdens, and our entire person.

      B. “Supplication” is a more specific kind of prayer that asks God to supply someone’s needs. It is intercession or “supplication for all saints.”

  All these prayers give a balance that helps us avoid extremes in our praying.

         1) The extreme of asking but seldom thanking God. “Thanksgiving” is another kind of prayer mentioned in Philippians 4:6. Someone said, “One trial makes us forget 10,000 blessings.” Thanksgiving remedies this extreme. 

         2) The extreme of praying for physical needs but seldom praying for spiritual needs. In verses 19, 20 although Paul is in prison in chains, he does not request “that his ankles, raw and sore from his shackles, might be healed, or that he might be freed from prison and suffering” (MacArthur, 383). He request prayer for boldness to witness to the lost.

         3) The extreme of praying for ourselves but seldom for others. Even here Paul does not pray for himself but instead asks his people to pray for him. Paul was not bashful in asking his people to pray for him. Here are other times Paul requested others to pray for him: 2 Cor 1:11; Col 4:3-4; 1 Thess 5:25; 2 Thess 3:1-2; Rom 15:30-32; Phil 1:19. MacArthur explains why it is important to pray for our spiritual leaders: “Our enemy knows that when he strikes the shepherd, the sheep will scatter (Matt 26:31), and church leaders—-even as the Lord Himself—are Satan’s special targets. The more faithful and fruitful a pastor is, the more his people need to pray for his strength and protection. He is more subject to the devil’s schemes to make him discouraged or self-satisfied, hopeless or superficially optimistic, cowardly or overconfident. Satan uses every situation—favorable or unfavorable, successful or unsuccessful— to try to weaken, distract, an discredit God’s gifted men in their work of “equipping of the saints for the work of service” (Eph. 4:12) (page 384).

3. By Praying “In the Spirit”

      A. Praying in the Spirit is the opposite of praying in the flesh or “asking amiss that you might consume it on your own lusts” (James 4:3).

      B. Paul has given us a pattern for prayer in 1:17 and 3:14 that involves the Trinity in our praying. We pray to the Father in the name of Jesus and in the power of the Spirit.

      C. Praying in the Spirit also means praying with the Spirit’s help (Romans 8:26, 27). “To pray in the Spirit is to pray in concert with the Spirit, who ’helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words’” (MacArthur, 380). 

4. By Watching and Praying “Watching Thereunto and Supplication”

      A. Peter fell asleep in the act of prayer (Jesus told Peter to “watch and pray that you enter not into temptation” in Matthew 26:41 and Peter did not watch and pray but fell asleep and also into temptation in Matthew 26:69).

      B. Paul’s point is much more important: Don’t fall asleep at the task of praying (Colossians 4:2). Don’t become complacent about prayer. There are too many people who need our prayers for us not to pray as we ought.

5. By Praying “With all Perseverance”

      A. The church in Acts 12 prayed with perseverance for Peter’s deliverance from martyrdom. The church prayed with perseverance and at the last minute on the night before the next day that Peter would be executed, God answered their prayer.

       B. Sometimes we stop praying too soon. Someone said, “Perseverance in praying doesn’t mean you pray all night, but you pray all week, or all month, or all year. You don’t give up.” For whom or for what are you praying? Don’t give up.

George Mueller’s name will forever be associated with effective prayer. Through fervent prayer, Mueller established an orphanage in Bristol, England in the 1800s. Mueller saw that ministry grow to include the care of two thousand orphans in five orphanages. Mueller traveled over 200,o00 miles to share the gospel in forty-two countries. In all of this, he never once asked for money; he based his enormous ministry solely on prayer. Mueller also faithfully prayed for people’s salvation. At one point in his life he observed:

In November, 1844, I began to pray for the conversion of five individuals. I prayed every day without a single intermission, whether sick or in health, on land or at sea, and whatever the pressure on my engagements might be. Eighteen months elapsed before the first of the five was converted. I thanked God and prayed on for the others. Five years elapsed, and then the second was converted. I thanked God for the second, and prayed on for the other three. Day by day I continued to pray for them, and six years passed before the third was converted.  I thanked God for the three, and went on praying for the other two. These two remained unconverted . . . . The man to whom God in the riches of his grace has given tens of thousands of answers to prayer in the self-same hour or day in which they were offered has been praying day by day for nearly thirty-six years for the conversion of these individuals, and yet they remain unconverted…. But I hope in God, I pray on, and look yet for the answer. They are not converted yet, but they will be.

It was not until after Mueller’s death that the last man accepted Christ as his Savior, but each one did. Such was Mueller’s trust in God and tenacity in prayer (Henry and Richard Blackaby. Spiritual Leadership. 152-153).

If you have completed the 13 weeks of study through Ephesians let me know.

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Week 13: The NEW Bible Institute on Ephesians: The Spiritual Warfare of Prayer, Part 1

March 4, 2010 — Leave a comment

Week  13 Assignment: Read pages 375-385 in MacArthur on Ephesians 6:18-24. Read and comment on the two posts (Parts 1-2) for our final week.

Three statesments leap out to me from these verses!

1. The Christian life is a battleground.

Tozer captured the worldview of the worldly: “Men think of the world, not as a battleground, but as a playground. We are not here to fight, we are here to frolic” (A. W. Tozer in God Tells the Man who Cares). Paul writes a military strategy for the local church in Ephesians 6:10-20 that portrays the Christian life as a war that God has equipped us to win. 

2. Satan is our opponent. Not “flesh and blood” or our co-workers, neighbors, mates, parents, children, the government, etc. Our enemy is supernatural.

3. God is our Commander-in-Chief. He has armed us adequately to do battle. “Nuclear wars cannot be won with rifles” (Harold W. Hoehner. Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002, 859). God has supplied a supernatural arsenal for us which includes prayer. We use this supernatural weapon against our supernatural enemy.

Napoleon had a military philosophy that an army travelled on its belly. In other words, you must keep your soldiers fed. Paul’s military philosophy was that the army of Jesus Christ travels on its knees. James must have practiced this technique because he known as “Camel Knees” because he prayed so much.

Paul concludes the entire epistle of Ephesians, the theme of which is The Unity that Love can Bring, and this final section, How to Resist the Devil, with a charge to God’s people to pray.

How can our local church be united in resisting the Devil?

1. By Depending on God’s Strength (Ephesians 6:10-11a)

2. By Knowing our Enemy (Ephesians 6:11b-13)

3. By Putting on God’s Spiritual Armor (Ephesians 6:14-20)

Paul now commands the local army of God after we have put on God’s spiritual armor to go to battle on their knees. How can we do battle on our knees?

1. By Always Being Able to Pray “Praying always”

    A. In the OT, there were prescribed times of daily prayer (Psalm 55:17).

    B. Now, we can pray any time (1 Thess 2:9, 3:10).  In these verses, Paul told the Thessalonians that he both labored and prayed “night an day” which obviously does not mean 24/7 but as he had the opportunity he worked and prayed. “When we are tempted, we hold the temptation before God and ask for His help. When we  experience something good and beautiful, we immediately thank the Lord for it. When we see evil around us, we pray that God will make it right and be willing to be used of Him to that end. When we meet someone who does not know Christ, we pray for God to draw that person to Himself and to use us to be a faithful witness. When we encounter trouble, we turn to God as our Deliverer” (MacArthur, 380).

I read this description of true prayer somewhere. Prayer is not an intercom system on a cruise ship where we order more food. But prayer is a walkie talkie on the battlefield where we get our next command for war. Which way do we think of prayer?

In my last post I give four other ways to do battle in prayer.

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How to Resist the Devil, Part 7, The Sword of the Spirit

February 26, 2010 — Leave a comment

Contrast “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” in Ephesians 6:17 with the Islam sword. “Islam teaches conversion by the sword. The Quran teaches hatred of Jews and Christians. ‘Kill those who join other gods with Allah whenever you find them’ (Sura 9:5). ‘Those who make war against Allah and his apostles…put to death’ (or have their hands and feet cut off; Sura 5:33).” Stewart Custer. In The Heavenlies: A Commentary on Ephesians. Greenville: Bob Jones University Press, 2008, 122).

Paul said that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (fleshly or material) but mighty through God” (2 Corinthians 10:4).

The Roman sword was a dagger for close hand-to-hand combat. It was a 2 inch wide, 2 feet long double edged knife.

The believer’s offensive weapon is “the Word of God.” To fight with a Roman dagger required great skill and precision, unlike swinging the broad sword like a baseball bat at your enemy.

Paul uses the word “rhema” [Gk for "word"] instead of “logos” in describing “the word of God.” Logos is the general word for Scripture. Jesus Christ is God’s full and final word to mankind. The Scriptures which are the Word of God in a parallel sense, tell us about Him. ” Rhema” means ‘a saying,’ in this case, a particular, specific portion of God’s written revelation” (James Montgomery Boice. An Expositional Commentary: Ephesians. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1988, 251). “The term Paul uses for word is not logos, which refers to general statements or messages, but is rhema, which refers to individual words or particular statements” (MacAuthur, 370).

1. It is not enough to say, “I have a general knowledge of the Bible. I believe it is God’s Word.”

2. We must know the Bible skillfully. Be able with precision to answer Satan’s attacks like Christ in Matthew 4:1-11.

Jesus is weak from a 40 day fast when the tempter comes packing. First, Satan states, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” What is the precise verse to answer this clever attack. God the Father has just declared Jesus His Son (Matthew 3:15-17). Satan is saying, If you are God’s son act independent of Him. Jesus reaches all the way back to Deueronomy 8:3 with the answer, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word [Gk. rhema, or particular verse] that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”

Next, Satan who reads and studies Scripture, quotes verses at Jesus. “He shall give his angels charge concerning you: and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest at any time you dash you foot against a stone” (Psalm 91:11). In essence, Satan said, “Test and prove God before the populace.” Jesus again quotes from Deuteronomy, “It is written again, You shall not tempt or test the Lord you God” or “You don’t test God you trust God.”

Finally, we see in this hand-to-hand combat, that Satan not only knows Scripture but theology. Satan knows that according to the Old Testament, Jesus is reign over the planet as King of kings (Isaiah 9:6). “All these kingdoms will I give you if you will fall down and worship me.”

Jesus also had studied Old Testament theology and knew before the Messiah reigns in glory over the O.T. prophesied kingdom, the Messiah must suffer (Isaiah 53). So Jesus for third time quoted accurately from Deuteronomy 6:13, “It is written, You shall worship the Lord you God and him only shall you worship.”

Does Satan spend more time in the Scriptures than we do? Does he spend more time reading doctrine and studying theology than we do and therefore have the advantage over us?

For our final week of studies in Ephesians, I will posts two parts on The Spiritual Warfare of Prayer. Once we get all of this armor on, what do we do next? You might be surprised.

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How to Resit the Devil, Part 6, The Helmet of Salvation

February 21, 2010 — Leave a comment

In the eight year Afghanistan war against terrorism, last year suffered the heaviest civilian casualties: 2500 civilians died. US General Stanley McChrystal, NATO commander, has changed the rules of engagement. Our military can only fire on the Taliban in self-defense. For example, if a sniper fires from a building and then lays down his rifle and walks out of the building unarmed our military cannot open fire.

The military is trying not only to win the war against terrorism but the hearts and minds of the Afghans for future relations and so the terrorists will not retake the country after we have pulled out.

We soldiers of the cross do not have the same rules of engagement. Our enemy will never lay down his weapons. Peter perfectly identified our enemy’s tactics: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

 Paul instructs us how to engage our Enemey in Ephesians 6:10-20.

1. By Depending on God’s Strength (6:10, 11a).

The most powerful military in the world is in Afghanistan but is limited by the rules of engagement. Cobra attack helicopters cannot fire Hellfire missiles until enemy combatants are positively identified which can take over an hour. Military leadership believes this is necessary to avoid unnecessary property damages and collateral damage.

2. By Knowing Your Enemy (6:11b, 12).

The war on terrorism in Afghanistan is difficult because the enemy blends in with the citizenry. An insurgent can fire at our troops, lay down his weapon, walk into the crowd and be lost.

3. By Putting on God’s Spiritual Armor (6:13-20).

Paul has listed the armor in the same order the Roman soldier would put on his equipment as he prepared for battle. First, he put on the belt on which hung his sword, then the breastplate, next the shoes, the shield, and finally the last two pieces were the helmet and the dagger for hand-to-hand combat.

We have come to the final two pieces of weaponry. The soldier would hold his door like shield with his left arm and before the soldier could grab his dagger with his right hand, he would have to put on the hot and uncomfortable helmet.

The helmet of salvation has to be received or appropriated before the believer can wield the sword of the Spirit. The Roman soldier wore a bronze helmet fitted over an iron skull cap lined with leather or clothe. This protected him from the enemy’s broad sword which was a large two handed sword 3 to 4 feet in length carried by cavalrymen who intended on splitting the skulls of their enemies.

The Christian soldiers’ helmet is salvation that protects us from Satan’s attempts to destroy us spiritually. Paul says “take” or “receive” this helmet. That is appropriate all the benefits of salvation.

Salvation’s three benefits can equip the believer not to fall victim to Satan’s attacks.

1. Our past salvation benefit is deliverance from the condemnation of sin (Romans 8:1).

If you have assurance of justification, Satan cannot defeat you with the quilt of your past. Satan is the accuser of the brethren. But all of our past sins are forgiven and forgotten by God because of justification.

2. Our present salvation benefit is deliverance from the control of sin.

This is primarily Paul’s reference in the helmet of salvation. Satan cannot defeat you with temptations if presently you are being delivered from the control of sin through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. If we walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh through which Satan will tempt you. Satan will defeat us through our thought life: “As a man thinks, so is he.” If we have put on the helmet of present deliverance from sin, the Tempter cannot defeat us.

3. Our future salvation benefit is deliverance from the very circumstance of sin.

Glorification is the believer’s certain future as Paul’s describes in Romans 8:28-30: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

In 1 Thessalonians 5:8, Paul referred to the “helmet, the hope of salvation.” We can be “confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

It is said of the troops of Lord Cromwell the Protector that they never lost because, being Calvinists, they knew that their destiny was secure and that they were fighting because God had led them to that spot and would prosper them in that work. There is a sense in which that should be true of us.” (James Montgomery Boice. An Expositional Commentary: Ephesians. Grand Rapids: Baker Book, 1988, 248). God has led you to where you are in your Christian life and conflict and He will protect you with the helmet of salvation.

These three benefits of salvation protect us from the past, present, and future effects of sin. “If God be for us who can be against us.”

In Part 7, we discover the importance of being skillful with the Sword of the Spirit in combat with the Devil.

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How to Resist the Devil, Part 5,The Shield of Faith

February 12, 2010 — Leave a comment

Darth Vader once said, “I find your lack of faith—disturbing.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes, known for his quotes said, “It is faith in something that makes life worth living.” Faith is the common denominator of life. “Every person lives by some form of faith. We cross a bridge with the faith that it will support us. We eat food trusting that it is not poisoned. We put our lives in the security of airplanes, trains, ships, buses, and automobiles, confident that they are safe. The fact that faith in such things is usually well founded makes life and society as we know it possible” (John MacArthur. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Ephesians. Chicago: Moody Press1986, 216).

The skeptic of Christianity says, “There can’t be just one true religion.” But the cynic can’t empirically prove his claim and is therefore inconsistent for rejecting Christianity because it is empirically unprovable. His faith is in his faulty logic rather than in God, but he has faith.

Even atheists live by faith. Not faith in God’s Word but in the process of evolution.

Experiments were conducted in the United States by Stan Miller, whose synthesis in a laboratory produced sizable quantities of amino acids and other organic molecules. Later, adenine, one of the components of DNA, was synthesized from a mixture of ammonia, methane, and water. Thus, the building blocks of life were brought about through human experimentation. But even with the synthesis of amino acids in a highly controlled laboratory, scientists agree that life cannot be sustained without protein, and proteins come only from life. In other words, life would already have to have been here before it began. As evolutionist Taylor admits, ‘The fundamental objection to all these theories is that they involve raising oneself by one’s own bootstraps. You cannot make proteins without DNA, but you cannot make DNA without enzymes which are proteins. It is a chicken and egg situation.’ Creationist A. E. Wilder-Smith uses this example: If a baby suddenly appeared without a mother, it would die. Hence, even if a cell were to begin random forces, it would immediately die because there would be no cradle for it” (Lutzer, Erwin. Twelve Myths Americans Believe, Chicago: Moody Press, page 35).

Paul states clearly that faith in God is the only way to live a life that pleases God and equips us to defeat Satan.

The next piece of spiritual armor provided by God for the believer to successfully stand against the methods of Satan is the first piece not attached to the body of the Roman soldier.

Paul even introduces this weapon differently. Instead of “and” as with the other weapons, Paul writes, “above all” or “in addition to” the other weapons (Ephesians 6:16). Very likely the Roman warrior, who was present throughout the Roman Empire, that Paul is using as his example, would put on his armor in the sequence Paul is listing them. First the belt which had the sword attached to it, then the breastplate, then the hobnail shoes, and now the door shield. Then the soldier would put on the hot helmet and lastly unsheath his sword in actual hand-to-hand combat.

The Roman soldier had two kinds of shields used in battle. One was the smaller gladiator’s  shield strapped to one arm. The shield Paul alludes to, however, was the door shield which was 2 1/2 by 4 1/2 feet in size: Large enough for the soldier to crouch behind. The shield made of wood was covered in canvas and leather with a raised metal boss in the middle.

1. The boss on the shield deflected some the enemy’s arrows.

2. The raised boss on the front of the shield also made the shield an offensive weapon. The sharp pointed boss could be thrust into the enemy’s chest. Faith is on the offensive not just the defensive as 1 John 5:4 states, “This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.”

3. Primarily, the door shield could be interlocked together with other soldiers’ shields to form a shield wall as long as a mile. The shield wall presented a united front to the attacking enemy. This fits nicely with the theme of Ephesians: The Unity Love can Bring. This reminds us that the church is not simply a crowd that meets on Sundays but an army that assembles for bootcamp or basic training on Sundays to be equipped to do battle the rest of the week.

The spiritual shield for the believer is “faith.”

1. Paul is not referring to “the faith” or the necessary body of truth that must be adhered to for a person to be a believer. Paul discussed this kind of faith in 4:13. The belt of truth, the first piece of armor put on, was the “the faith” necessary for the other kinds of faith.

2. Certainly this is saving faith which Paul explained in 1:13. I agree with many that there are three aspects to saving faith.

First, there must be knowledge. We must know certain facts about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Just any knowledge sincerely believed is not sufficient as illustrated by the Jews in Romans 10:1-3. In Romans 10:9-10, Paul states those necessary facts of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection that the sinner must know in order to receive Christ as his Savior.

Second, there must also be agreement with or mental assent to the truth of the gospel. It is possible to know the gospel message of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection and not agree. Paul referring again to the Jews who rejected his gospel message said, “But they have not all obeyed the gospel” (Romans 10:16). Those Jews had the knowledge of the gospel but did not agree with the facts.

It is also possible to have the knowledge of the gospel and agree with that knowledge and still be unsaved. James writes of this possibility in 2:19: “You believe that there is one God; you do well: the demons also believe, and tremble.” What was the content of the demons’ faith? It had to include the first two aspects of saving faith. Saving faith requires more than knowledge of the gospel and more than agreement or mental assent to the truth of the gospel. Saving faith requires a third aspect.

The third aspect of saving faith, which the demons did not possess, is trust in the person of Christ and His subsitutionary death and resurrection.  Paul describes this faith in Romans 10:9: “If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.” This is the act of the will of the sinner who has heard the gospel and has been convicted of sin, righteousness, and judgment by the Holy Spirit of rejecting Christ and has changed his attitude about sin and God (repentance) and no longer rejects but trusts Christ as Savior. Once the sinner is saved by grace through faith when he “calls upon the name of the Lord” (Romans 10:13) he is “justified” and as good as “glorified” (Romans 8:30). The is the Gospel good news that we must share around the world.

The video quoted Carl F. H. Henry, “The Gospel is only good news if it gets there in time.”

3. The faith Paul calls a shield is primarily a living faith. “The just shall live by faith” is the most repeated theological statement in Scripture (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38).

Peter agreed with Paul when he wrote, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith” (1 Peter 5:8-9).

We believers need saving and living faith to protect us from “the fiery darts of the wicked one.”

The “darts” covered a wide range of weapons in 1st century warfare. “Darts” could have been the 7 feet long flaming javelins wrapped in clothe, saturated in flammable pitch, ignited, and hurled for 30 yards. These are the big assaults of Satan on your faith. These are the attacks that split churches and ruin believers’ testimonies.

“Darts” were also flaming arrows shot from a great distance sometimes by the hundreds or thousands. These burning arrows would spatter bits of fire onto the other nearby soldiers as well unless there was a united wall of shields.

The devil has a wide variety of fiery bolts in his arsenal with which to assault us. The temptations that he fires at us include the ones Paul has already identified:  Temptations of lying, anger, stealing, corrupt words, bitterness, and unforgiveness (Ephesians 4:25-32).

Before battle, the Roman soldier soaked his shield in water. The canvas and leather saturated with water would put out the embedded fiery arrows.

Go back to Satan’s first fiery missile shot at Eve in Genesis 3. God told Adam and Eve, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.”

Satan tempted Eve to doubt and disbelieve God’s Word: “You shall not surely die: For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

We sin when we doubt God’s Word and believe Satan’s lie.

Contrast Jesus’ response to lying Satan. Satan tempted Christ to doubt and disbelieve “His Father’s provision, then to distrust His protection and His plan in Matthew 4:3-9” (MacArthur, 359).

Jesus absorbed the fiery arrows of Satan’s temptations in the shield of faith in God’s Word by quoting three passages from Deuteronomy. How many of us could defeat Satan’s temptations by quoting from Deuteronomy?

You must saturate your shield of faith in God’s Word to be able to extinguished the fiery arrows of Satan. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” This week soak your shield of faith in daily reading God’s Word and faithfully attending the preached Word of God at your church.

In our next post we will study the helmet of salvation.

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Week 12: The NEW Bible Institute on Ephesians: How to Resist the Devil, Part 4

January 31, 2010 — Leave a comment

Week 12 Assignments: Read pages 345-373 in MacArthur and Eph 6:14-17 . Read Parts 4-7 and comment on them. This week we continue with Paul’s instructions on how to resist the Devil.

I think it was Andrew Bonar who first imagined a situation in which a Christian dies and goes to heaven and there meets some of the authors of the biblical books: Ezekiel, for example, and next to him Malachi and Amos and Habakkuk, and maybe Isaiah. They manage to strike up a conversation, and the Christian is glad to meet these men God used to write the Bible. “Ah, Ezekiel, what a pleasure to met you!” he says.

“I am pleased you are glad to meet me,” Ezekiel replies. “Tell me, what did you think of my book?”

The Christian has to answer, “I’m afraid I didn’t really read it.”

Malachi is there, so he chimes in. “Well, my book is a lot shorter than Ezekiel’s. Certainly you read it! What do you think of what I said.”

Again the Christian has to admit that he has not read it. “Malachi? Is that in the Old Testament or the New Testament” (James Montgomery Boice.  Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1988, 245).

Paul has given us three battlefield strategies for standing firm against the attacks of the Devil:

1. By Depending on God’s Strength (Ephesians 6:10-11a)

2. By Knowing our Enemy (Ephesians 6:11b-13)

3. By Putting on God’s Spiritual Armor (Ephesians 6:14-20)

Paul begins by describing the pieces of armor attached to the Roman soldier’s body.

The First Piece of Armor the Christina Soldier must put on is the Belt of Truth.

Jesus said to His Father in prayer, “Your Word is truth. Sanctify them through your Word” (John 17:17).

The first piece of armor the Roman soldier put on was his belt. Roman soldiers wore a tunic as an outer garment with a hole for the head and two holes for the arms. The tunic was like a dress. The belt kept the tunic from flying around and making it easy for the enemy to grab and defeat the soldier. The belt made the soldier’s armor like the football running back’s skin tight uniform that protects him from easily being brought down.

Paul in Ephesians makes much of both the objective truth of God’s Word in 1:13; 4;15, 21; 6:14 and subjective truthfulness in 4:24, 25; 5:9; 6:14. Today’s postmodernism’s rejects absolute truth. The preacher or teacher with a hermeneutic of humility says, “I am to humble to claim to have the right interpretation or that your interpretation might be wrong.” Paul was not so humble. He told the Galatian heretics if they misinterpreted the gospel God would judge them (Galatians 1:6).

The Next Piece of Armor the Christian Soldier must put on is the Breastplate of Righteousness.

Roman soldiers wore woven chain interlinked rings of metal to protect the most vulnerable portion and his vital organs. The breastplate was called “The heart protector.”

Paul was not talking about imputed righteousness but practical righteousness. Of course there can be no personal righteousness without justification or imputed righteousness. Sin puts a clink in this armor thus making us more unprotected against the attacks of hand to hand combat with Satan.

Confession of sin, however, can immediately repair the defective breastplate.

The Last Piece of Armor the Christian Soldier must put on is his Feet Shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace.

Roman citizens normally wore lightweight sandals. Roman soldiers, however, wore thick soled, boot like sandals studded with hobnails like football cleats.

Christian soldiers have prepared before the battle by receiving the gospel that gives them peace with God (Romans 5:1). The gospel gives you peace in the battle because you are saved and sealed or kept by God as Paul discussed in 1:13.

This piece of armor is not the preaching of the gospel but the preparation of the gospel that enables us to stand our ground in Christ. Paul in Ephesians 6:15 is not talking about going into all the world to preach the gospel as he did in Romans 10:15, but rather being prepared by the gospel to stand firm against the attacks of Satan.

Have you put on the belt of truth? If not receive Christ who is “the way, the truth, and the life” and be saved. Child of God do you need to tighten the belt of truth a notch or two and get more serious about studying and hiding God’s Word in your heart that you might not sin against God when Satan comes tempting?

In the next post, we will explain the shield of faith. Did you know that the shield of faith could be used offensively?

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How to Resist the Devil, Part 3

January 29, 2010 — Leave a comment

Charles Spurgeon, the great British Baptist Defender of the Faith, said, “The Devil never beats a dead horse.” He knew whereof he spoke. Spurgeon was embroiled in three great battles in London at Metropolitan Tabernacle. Ian Murray in The Forgotten Spurgeon, records the three famous conflicts Spurgeon fought as England’s leading pastor. The three confrontations were with preachers of Arminianism (works for salvation), preachers of baptismal regeneration (works for salvation by water baptism) and the Downgrade Controversy (Liberalism in Spurgeon’s denomination, the Baptist Union). Spurgeon earnestly contended for the faith and probably went to an early grave as a consequence.

If you and your church preach and defend doctrine, the emphasis of Ephesians 1-3, and practice what you believe, the point of Ephesians 4-6, you can expect “to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Paul in the final section of Ephesians equips us to “resist the Devil” (James 4:7).

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How to Resist the Devil, Part 2, “Be made strong in the Lord”

January 22, 2010 — Leave a comment

The battle is real and urgent as described by Paul in Ephesians 6:10-20. Paul begins this final section in Ephesians on spiritual warfare with “finally brethren.” This signals not so much the conclusion of the letter as the climax. In Ephesians 1-3, Paul defined doctrines that teach the unity love can bring to a church: The doctrines of the Trinity and the Church. If an individual believer or church teaches and holds to sound doctrine, there will be demonic opposition.

 On the other hand, if a believer or church is weak doctrinally, they will become easy prey for the devil. Paul made this very clear in Ephesians 4:11-14. If believers do not study seriously God’s Word they will be undernourished and spiritually gullible. Jesus said it this way, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”

In Ephesians 4-6, Paul showed how doctrine must be practiced in his 5 “Therefore Walk” sections. If we walk our talk we will also incur the wrath of Satan. The early church was not persecuted just for what they believed but for what they believed and lived out in the market place. They were persecuted when they hit the streets of Jerusalem with the gospel in Acts 2 and 3. In Acts 4, Satan started outwardly attacking the church and inwardly in Acts 5. Recently Brit Hume took his Christianity to the national airwaves and was plummeted by the secularists in the public media. On the other hand, if we fail to live doctrine we can “give place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27).

Paul began Ephesians exulting in our spiritual blessings we enjoy in Christ in “heavenly places” in 1:3. Paul will mention “in the heavenlies” five times in Ephesians. As is seen in all five references, there is a connection between the heavenlies and believers on earth. 

1) The Trinity has bestowed upon believers on earth spiritual not necessarily material blessings as a result of their involvement in our salvation.

2) We also can experience the same spiritual power on earth that resurrected and exalted Christ to the right hand of God the Father in “heavenly places” according to Ephesians 1:18-23.

3)  Paul continues developing the theme of “heavenly places” by reminding us in 2:6 that positionally believers are seated together with Christ in “heavenly places.”

Positionally in Christ we are ”far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion” (1:20-21) which includes evil and good angels. Because we are positionally above evil angels we do not need to be defeated by them here on earth.

4) The new truth that all believers are equal in the Body of Christ that was uniquely revealed to Paul and others apostles by God, called the mystery of the church, was not revealed to angels.

Angels “in the heavenlies” learn this great truth by observing the unity in the local church on earth in Ephesians 3:1-10.

5) But in the last section, Paul also warns that our enemies are in “heavenly places” in 6:12.

Like our blessings, power, and position, our enemies are spiritual rather than physical or material. Their goal is to rob us of our spiritual blessings, power, and position. In Job 1, Satan goes to God in the heavenlies for permission to attack Job on earth. In Daniel 10, God sent an angel to answer Daniel’s prayer which was intercepted by an evil angel. Michael the archangel intervenes so Daniel’s prayer on earth can be answered.

There is a spiritual warfare waging in the heavenlies that impacts us on earth. But greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4). Paul is going to equip us to do hand to hand, face to face combat with our arch foe and defeat him in the power of God’s might.

Paul begins the final section of Ephesians by instructing us how to resist the devil.

First, by depending on God’s strength in verses 10 and 11 a.

There is a very important balance in these verses. We are made strong with God’s might. When Paul wrote “be strong in the Lord” he employed the passive. Be made strong by the Lord. We can only be victorious with God’s strength and help. The same power that resurrected and seated Christ in the heavenlies is resident in us. We must, however, appropriate that power.

Next, Paul commands, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Did you catch the balance? We must actively put on what God has provided to stand in the battles of life. When Jesus was tempted for 40 days he stood against Satan by quoting Scripture he had committed to memory. He had on the belt of truth and the wielded skillfully the sword of the Spirit. Jesus stood. He did not retreat. He did not lie down in defeat.  Are you taking advantage of every opportunity to be skillful with God’s Word in order to stand in the battle?

In the next post, we will look at the seven pieces of armor provided by God that we must put on to stand and resist the devil.

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Week 11: The NEW Bible Institute on Ephesians: How to Resist the Devil, Part 1

January 18, 2010 — Leave a comment

Week  11 Assignment: Read pages 331-344 in MacArthur and Ephesians 6:10-13. Read and comment on the three posts (Parts 1-3) for week eleven.

A pastor tells an amusing story about a man who was on his way to attend a costume party one Sunday evening. He was wearing a red suit with a tail and a skintight mask with horns. He looked like the false, but widely accepted picture of the devil.

As he hurried along, he was caught in a sudden rainstorm, so he took shelter in a church where the service was just ending. As he entered the building, he shocked the members who thought he was the real thing. A flash of lightning and a clap of thunder added to the illusion.

The congregation panicked and rushed for the exits. The intruder thought the church had been struck by lightning and was on fire, so he raced after them. Everyone got out except an elderly lady. Turning in fear, she stretched out her hands and pleaded for mercy, “Oh, devil, please don’t hurt me. I know I’ve been a member of this church for 30 years, but I’ve really been on your side all the time.

Sadly, many church members have no more insight as to who their greatest enemy is. There are certainly extreme views on the devil and his demons.

1. One extreme view on demons is to obsess over demons.

An example is “deliverance ministries” as represented by Frank Hammond’s book Pigs in the Parlor: A Practical Guide to Deliverance.  According to Hammond, nearly every problem in life can be attributed to a demon. Hammond has a three-page list of three hundred demons: demons of resentment, stubbornness, bickering, faultfinding, envy, procrastination, pride, self-righteousness, greed, gossip, shyness, daydreaming, discouragement, headache, retardation, forgetfulness, heartache, embarrassment, sexual frigidity, and intellectualism. Hammond also teaches that demons enter a person before birth or during infancy. A child’s stuffed frog could attract demons. Robert M. Bowman, Jr. states Hammond’s book is a very influential manual among the deliverance ministry genre (Kenneth D. Boa, Robert M. Bowman, Jr. Sense & Nonsense About Angels & Demons. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007, 130).

Jimmy Swaggart had the so-called demon of lust cast out of him by Oral Roberts only to fall back into that sin again. Oral Roberts said he saw demons with long fingernails digging into Swaggart’s flesh and had cast them out (Huntsville Times, Huntsville, Alabama, AP report, March 31, 1988; reported from Calvary Contender, April 15, 1988). Three years later Swaggart was stopped by police in Indio, California who found that the woman riding with him was a prostitute. The devil and demons get falsely accused alot.

The earthquake in Haiti this week got blamed on the devil by Pat Robertson who said the Haitian slaves made a “pact with the devil” and have been cursed ever since. Jesus’ attitude more accurately evaluates this tragedy in Luke 13:1-5.

2. The other extreme view on the devil and demons is to deny their existence.

Sigmund Freud said the devil was a personification of evil. He took the “D” off of devil. Stephen F. Noll wrote that “people are now talking about angels. But does anyone think about them seriously.” Other scholars consider angels “superstitious nonsense” and “endangered species” (Bowman, 15).

3. The Biblical view is to acknowledge that the devil and his demons exist and can be resisted in God’s strength.

Paul writes his most extensive treatment of the devil and demons in Ephesians 6:10-20 and informs and challenges the church to resist them in God’s strength.

The method for resisting the devil and his demons is not exorcism in Ephesians 6. In contrast to Paul, theologian Wayne Grudem explains five steps in exorcising demons (Systematic Theology, 431-432). Mark Driscoll lectures on Spiritual Warfare and gives intricate details on casting out demons. Both Grudem and Driscoll refer to Ephesians 6:10-20 as a text that justifies exorcism. In Ephesians 6, Paul explains seven pieces of spiritual armor to wear to defeat Satan and his organized army. No steps or intricate instruction on exorcism are ever mentioned in the Epistles.

See our post Is There a Gift of Exorcism Today? for a refutation of Grudem’s and Driscoll’s views.

In my next post, I will begin discussing the three methods Paul states for resisting the Devil.

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Week 10: The Bible Institute on Ephesians: Slaves and Slave Owners, Part 4

January 4, 2010 — Leave a comment

To review, Paul has instructed concerning the

1. Christian Employee’s Attitude of Submission in Ephesians 6:5-8

First, as with the first two life-relationships, the subordinate partner is addressed first and then the one who is responsible for leadership (wives/husbands; children/parents; employees/employers.

Next, the command is stated: “Employees obey.”

True to form, Paul amplifies this command.

1) We obey with “fear and trembling.”

2) We obey with honesty or “singleness of heart to the Lord.”

Paul further elaborates on how to work with sincerity and not duplicity or hypocrisy. Obey “not with eyeservice as menpleasers.” This is the case when we produce quality work when the Boss is watching but slow down when he steps out of the room.

The contrast “but” is doing our best work all the time “as the slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.” The positive attitude in 6:6 is expanded in 6:7: “Rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man.” We can have a positive work ethic when we realize ultimately we are serving the Lord at work.

The work station is our mission station. Most believers have more contact with unbelievers at work than at church. When world renowned architect Sir Christopher Wren was overseeing the construction of  his most famous work, St Paul’s Cathedral in London, it is reported that a stranger came to three of his workmen who were all employed on the same job. The stranger asked each worker, the same question, “What are you doing?” Growled the first man, “I’m breaking rocks.” The second said, “I’m earning a living.” But the third replied, “I’m building a cathedral.” All three were witnesses but only one was a good witness.

Paul writing to Titus states this same truth pointedly in Titus 2:9-11:  “Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.”

Finally, Paul states the motivation for this positive Christian attitude of Spirit-filled submission.

The motivation for work has to be more than a paycheck which Paul now declares in 6:8: “knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.”

Diligent workers who work for the Lord with a positive attitude can be rewarded at the end of each day with a sense of satisfaction. Proverbs 14:23: “In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.” There is dignity in work whether the employer recognizes your accomplishment or not.

Paul stresses, however, the future reward of Christian workers who diligently labor for the Lord with a positive attitude. Paul is probably referring to the future Judgment Seat in 2 Corinthians 5:10: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”

“This future certainty rests not on the tense but God who makes the promise. This is important because masters sometimes promised freedom but never kept their promise. A story in Tacitus illustrates….He tells of the murder of a famous senator by a household slave…because the master had refused to manumit the slave on a previously agreed price … In other words, the slave served with ill will” (Harold W. Hoehner. Ephesians. Pages 810-812).

Before we move in the text to the employer’s responsibility, answer this question, “What kind of worker do you think Jesus was when he worked as a carpenter with His foster father, Joseph?” Was Jesus ever late for work? Did Jesus do sloppy work? Was Jesus easy to work with?

2. Christian Employer’s Attitude of Submission in Ephesians 6:9

Now, the partner responsible for leadership is addressed: “And you masters” and by extension to employers today.

There are fewer verses on the employer’s responsibility because there were fewer masters than slaves, not because the master’s responsibility was less important.

The command: “Do the same things unto them.”

Employers are to act on the same principle as the employees. If the employees are to render service to their employers as “unto the Lord” then the employers are to treat their employees as the Lord would. For example, when Boaz came to the field to greet his employees, he greeted them in the morning with the words, “The Lord be with you” and his employees responded, “The Lord bless you.”

The amplification: “Forbearing threatening.”

“This prohibition is appropriate, for there was a proverbial statement that ‘all slaves are enemies’ because masters were tyrants and abusive. Abuse was displayed in various ways such as threats of beating, sexual harassment of female slaves, threats to sell the male slaves ‘away from the household so as to part him forever from his loved ones’ to name a few” (Harold W. Hoehner, Ephesians, page 814).

Even today there are two kinds of abusive bosses 1) The incompetent superiors who possess the ability to make their failures look like the fault of others. These bosses are negative and discouraging 2) The intolerant superiors who are over qualified workaholic perfectionists who think the work place cannot survive without them. These you can never satisfy.

The motivation: “Knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.”

Paul refers to the future Judgment Seat again. This time it is the accountability of the employer to his Master in heaven who is also an impartial Judge.

How did Jesus lead His 12 disciples?

1. Jesus prayerfully hired them (Luke 6:12-13).   

2. Jesus extensively trained His workers for three years. There was no hiring without proper training.

3. Jesus corrected them when they were wrong. He did not let problems go unaddressed (Luke 22:31-34). Jesus was not only the model worker but the model leader for each of us believers to emulate in our workplace. Just as Jesus depended on the Spirit of God to empower His humanity (Luke 4:18) so must we be Spirit equipped to live     harmoniously for the glory of God in our place of employment.

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