Sermon from my site. Thought would be good place to share
Weapons of Warfare
2 Cor 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.
Let's talk about weapons in general for a minute. I would never recommend having a weapon and never training with it. Why? Cause when it comes time to use it, your training could be the difference between life and death. They say in a self defense situation you will react as good as your worse day of training.
The ideal is to master your weapons. To Mastering a weapon, you need to practice practice practice... How do you master a weapon. Practice, train practice train. Find your week spot and strengthen it by practicing and training some more. It takes some people years if not a lifetime to master some weapon and they might even train with them daily.
Now some people will find what I have had layed on my heart a little different then normal. I was praying and reading how to defeat satan, and started studying our weapons as Christians. Most will preach on these verses as acts of a Christian. I am going to preach as weapons for the Christian. Follow along with me and I pray you recieve something out of this.
So why are we as Christians being defeated by Satan more then we should? Because we try to stand strong without using our weapons and armor. If you had the best weapons and shields available and was being attacked would you just not use them. No cause you would not last long. Guess what when we don’t use the weapons God has given us, we wont last long in this spiritual war we are in.
Let's look at the weapons and armor we have in our reach.
Ephesians 6:10-18. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
Now in Pauls days the greatest armor was that worn by the roman soliders. So let's look at how it compares to what paul talks about with Gods armor.
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
This is talking about attacks from demons and satan himself. See we should stand against the wiles of the Devil. The wiles here means the devils plans, or battle tactics, strategy. And he has a lot of them. Don’t get me wrong a lot of our sin is just our own nature and lust, But here it does tell us that the Devil will and does attack. He plans it out. That’s why we have to master the weapons God gave us and use them to stand against these attacks.
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth,
See in these days the Roman soldiers wore a belt, and its function was to hold the dagger, the sword, and the weapons the soldier had to carry. It also held the rest of the armor together.
Now Paul is talking here about a belt of Truth. What does the Bible say about truth. Well the Bible tells me That Gods word is the Truth. That Christ is the truth. So these should be the foundation of or spiritual weapons to win the battle. It should also be the foundation of our testimony.
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
John 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
John 14:6 I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
See a solider couldn't go into battle without his belt, because nothing would be held together. Like the kids you see walking around with thier pants around thier knees. Imagine an army of soldiers like that, it wouldnt look good.
Our armor and weapons are held together with Christ and the word of God. Without them we have already lost the battle. There is a saying that a soldiers mind is his greatest weapon, everything else is an accessory. As a Christian Christ and his word is our greatest weapon and everything else is an accessory. Don’t get me wrong the accessories are needed to be the strongest you can be in the battle. A soldier still takes the rest of his accessories. Seal team 6 didn't go for osama bare handed.
Without Christ and without the knowledge God gave us in his word we won't lasting long at all in a spiritual battle. We would be running around trying to hold up our pants. So lets study the Bible, and stand with Christ.
and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
The breastplate is the front portion of armour covering the vitals. There is not a solider that back in these days would go into battle without a breastplate. Now how long you think we would last in battle with our own righteousness.
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;
Don't think you will defeat the devil with your righteousness.
The righteouness we need as a breastplate comes from the cross. And Gods grace.
Romans 10:3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
Once again the foundation of this weapon is Christ. When we walk in our righteousness and pride we only have filthy rags protecting our vitals.
And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
At this time the roman soliders wore boots called
Caligae they were heavy-soled hob-nailed military boots. These shoes gave a solider an edge in hand to hand combat. With soles stubed with small nails allowing them to advance and stand there ground. We are to have the Gospel of peace, the good news of peace as our boots.
Where is the only place to find peace. In God that's the only place you will find it. Nothing on this earth will bring you peace untill you trust in Christ as your savior. His peace will help us stand our ground, have confidence and advance against the devil. If we stand on the good news of Christ what can move us.
Romans 16:20 And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
Another thing about these shoes they will hurt when you step on satan with them. Man don't you love how perfect and how the Bible comes together. Here we are talking about peace of the news of Christ being your shoes in the battle and you have a verse talking about how the God of peace will bruise satan under your feet Amen. Once again foundation of this is Christ. Take a stand on the gospel. Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
If your not standing on that you don't have nothing to stand on and satan has already won.
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
A shield is a type of personal armor, meant to stop projectiles such as arrows or redirecting a blow from a sword. Now the Roman soldiers shields would overlap so they could go side by side and advance while firery darts could not get to them. Our faith as christians better be in Christ and not ourself or of men. Man will let you down just about everytime.
1 cor 2:5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Having faith in God can do amazing things. The Bible has tons of examples of what faith can do. Here it tells us it can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. The fiery darts of the wicked should be exstinguished with faith in the power of God. If we have have in God why do we worry so much? We have a promise if we have faith all the darts of the wicked shall be extinguished. Once again the foundation of faith needs to be in Christ.
And take the helmet of salvation,
The helmet is used to protect the head from strikes in combat. Soldiers still wear helmets. The quickest way for a gaurented kill is a head shot. The head needs serious protection.
Psalms 37:39 But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him.
Psalms 62:7 In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.
We can't deliver ourself. Only through Christ can we have salvation. If we put on a helmet thinking we can save ourself with good works we are as good as dead. Once again our protection is in Christ.
Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
And you can have the helmet of salvation and the rest of the armor and weapons. With and other helmet you will have a quick kill shot..
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
In close quarter combat this was the most effective deadly weapon. The word of God is our sword.
John 1:14 tell us Christ is the word wrapped in flesh. We need to know our Bible. We need to know what Jesus would do. We say that a lot..bumper stickers and etc... Wwjd. But if we don't study Christ and his life we don't know what he would do. What did Christ do when satan tempted him. He responded everytime with for it is written and scripture for the situation.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,
Now I shouldn't have to tell you the deffenition of prayer or its importance. We should know that. Look at the battles of the old testament and how the Godly men won. Some never even went to battle they just prayed and the battle was over. The enemy would defeat themselves or an angle of God would get it done. Must be why paul is telling us to pray always and pray with the spirit. To the Father in the name of Christ. What does Jesus tell peter about praying.
Matt 26:41. Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
But let's not pray without faith.
Matt 21:22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
So let's review the weapons we have to start practicing and mastering.
We have the belt of truth that's holds together all of our armor and weapons. Which is Christ. This will defeat the lies of satan which we struggle with and has been going on since the garden. This will keep us from running around trying to hold everything together with our hands. Christ holds everything together. But if we don't know Gods truths in his word. If we arnt studdying his word. Then we must not want to win the battles.
We have the breastplate of righteousness. Once again this is Christ. You have 2 options to protect your vitals. #1 filthy rags. That's not going to stop anything. #2 Christ righteousness. Just remember without Christ we are nothing.
The shoes that stand on the good news of peace. We should stand and be ready to advance with the Gospel. The only way anybody will find peace. Let the lost know where they can find piece.
We have the shield of faith. Which when we have faith in Christ. Faith in the promises of God. Faith in prayer. The devils little firery darts can't penatrate us.
Weapons of Warfare
2 Cor 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.
Let's talk about weapons in general for a minute. I would never recommend having a weapon and never training with it. Why? Cause when it comes time to use it, your training could be the difference between life and death. They say in a self defense situation you will react as good as your worse day of training.
The ideal is to master your weapons. To Mastering a weapon, you need to practice practice practice... How do you master a weapon. Practice, train practice train. Find your week spot and strengthen it by practicing and training some more. It takes some people years if not a lifetime to master some weapon and they might even train with them daily.
Now some people will find what I have had layed on my heart a little different then normal. I was praying and reading how to defeat satan, and started studying our weapons as Christians. Most will preach on these verses as acts of a Christian. I am going to preach as weapons for the Christian. Follow along with me and I pray you recieve something out of this.
So why are we as Christians being defeated by Satan more then we should? Because we try to stand strong without using our weapons and armor. If you had the best weapons and shields available and was being attacked would you just not use them. No cause you would not last long. Guess what when we don’t use the weapons God has given us, we wont last long in this spiritual war we are in.
Let's look at the weapons and armor we have in our reach.
Ephesians 6:10-18. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
Now in Pauls days the greatest armor was that worn by the roman soliders. So let's look at how it compares to what paul talks about with Gods armor.
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
This is talking about attacks from demons and satan himself. See we should stand against the wiles of the Devil. The wiles here means the devils plans, or battle tactics, strategy. And he has a lot of them. Don’t get me wrong a lot of our sin is just our own nature and lust, But here it does tell us that the Devil will and does attack. He plans it out. That’s why we have to master the weapons God gave us and use them to stand against these attacks.
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth,
See in these days the Roman soldiers wore a belt, and its function was to hold the dagger, the sword, and the weapons the soldier had to carry. It also held the rest of the armor together.
Now Paul is talking here about a belt of Truth. What does the Bible say about truth. Well the Bible tells me That Gods word is the Truth. That Christ is the truth. So these should be the foundation of or spiritual weapons to win the battle. It should also be the foundation of our testimony.
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
John 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
John 14:6 I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
See a solider couldn't go into battle without his belt, because nothing would be held together. Like the kids you see walking around with thier pants around thier knees. Imagine an army of soldiers like that, it wouldnt look good.
Our armor and weapons are held together with Christ and the word of God. Without them we have already lost the battle. There is a saying that a soldiers mind is his greatest weapon, everything else is an accessory. As a Christian Christ and his word is our greatest weapon and everything else is an accessory. Don’t get me wrong the accessories are needed to be the strongest you can be in the battle. A soldier still takes the rest of his accessories. Seal team 6 didn't go for osama bare handed.
Without Christ and without the knowledge God gave us in his word we won't lasting long at all in a spiritual battle. We would be running around trying to hold up our pants. So lets study the Bible, and stand with Christ.
and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
The breastplate is the front portion of armour covering the vitals. There is not a solider that back in these days would go into battle without a breastplate. Now how long you think we would last in battle with our own righteousness.
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;
Don't think you will defeat the devil with your righteousness.
The righteouness we need as a breastplate comes from the cross. And Gods grace.
Romans 10:3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
Once again the foundation of this weapon is Christ. When we walk in our righteousness and pride we only have filthy rags protecting our vitals.
And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
At this time the roman soliders wore boots called
Caligae they were heavy-soled hob-nailed military boots. These shoes gave a solider an edge in hand to hand combat. With soles stubed with small nails allowing them to advance and stand there ground. We are to have the Gospel of peace, the good news of peace as our boots.
Where is the only place to find peace. In God that's the only place you will find it. Nothing on this earth will bring you peace untill you trust in Christ as your savior. His peace will help us stand our ground, have confidence and advance against the devil. If we stand on the good news of Christ what can move us.
Romans 16:20 And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
Another thing about these shoes they will hurt when you step on satan with them. Man don't you love how perfect and how the Bible comes together. Here we are talking about peace of the news of Christ being your shoes in the battle and you have a verse talking about how the God of peace will bruise satan under your feet Amen. Once again foundation of this is Christ. Take a stand on the gospel. Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
If your not standing on that you don't have nothing to stand on and satan has already won.
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
A shield is a type of personal armor, meant to stop projectiles such as arrows or redirecting a blow from a sword. Now the Roman soldiers shields would overlap so they could go side by side and advance while firery darts could not get to them. Our faith as christians better be in Christ and not ourself or of men. Man will let you down just about everytime.
1 cor 2:5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Having faith in God can do amazing things. The Bible has tons of examples of what faith can do. Here it tells us it can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. The fiery darts of the wicked should be exstinguished with faith in the power of God. If we have have in God why do we worry so much? We have a promise if we have faith all the darts of the wicked shall be extinguished. Once again the foundation of faith needs to be in Christ.
And take the helmet of salvation,
The helmet is used to protect the head from strikes in combat. Soldiers still wear helmets. The quickest way for a gaurented kill is a head shot. The head needs serious protection.
Psalms 37:39 But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him.
Psalms 62:7 In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.
We can't deliver ourself. Only through Christ can we have salvation. If we put on a helmet thinking we can save ourself with good works we are as good as dead. Once again our protection is in Christ.
Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
And you can have the helmet of salvation and the rest of the armor and weapons. With and other helmet you will have a quick kill shot..
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
In close quarter combat this was the most effective deadly weapon. The word of God is our sword.
John 1:14 tell us Christ is the word wrapped in flesh. We need to know our Bible. We need to know what Jesus would do. We say that a lot..bumper stickers and etc... Wwjd. But if we don't study Christ and his life we don't know what he would do. What did Christ do when satan tempted him. He responded everytime with for it is written and scripture for the situation.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,
Now I shouldn't have to tell you the deffenition of prayer or its importance. We should know that. Look at the battles of the old testament and how the Godly men won. Some never even went to battle they just prayed and the battle was over. The enemy would defeat themselves or an angle of God would get it done. Must be why paul is telling us to pray always and pray with the spirit. To the Father in the name of Christ. What does Jesus tell peter about praying.
Matt 26:41. Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
But let's not pray without faith.
Matt 21:22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
So let's review the weapons we have to start practicing and mastering.
We have the belt of truth that's holds together all of our armor and weapons. Which is Christ. This will defeat the lies of satan which we struggle with and has been going on since the garden. This will keep us from running around trying to hold everything together with our hands. Christ holds everything together. But if we don't know Gods truths in his word. If we arnt studdying his word. Then we must not want to win the battles.
We have the breastplate of righteousness. Once again this is Christ. You have 2 options to protect your vitals. #1 filthy rags. That's not going to stop anything. #2 Christ righteousness. Just remember without Christ we are nothing.
The shoes that stand on the good news of peace. We should stand and be ready to advance with the Gospel. The only way anybody will find peace. Let the lost know where they can find piece.
We have the shield of faith. Which when we have faith in Christ. Faith in the promises of God. Faith in prayer. The devils little firery darts can't penatrate us.
