Ephesians: The Holy War - Preach The Word

THE HOLY WAR: THE ARMOUR OF GOD5Pastor David Leggealternative? - and the only alternative can be: are you in the world? War or world? Indeed, I think that manyChristians live today as if they didn't have a spirit - not a soul now, the soul is the seat of your affections, thesoul is your personality, the soul is who you are, distinct from the body, but the spirit is the part of you thathas been given to you by God, the part that relates to God, the part that is dead in trespasses and in sins untilyou are regenerated by the grace of God - and when it becomes alive within you, that is the part, that is themercy seat where the sinner meets with the Saviour and you have communion. Do you walk in this world asif you had a spirit? For this is a spiritual war.I would say that if Christians are living the Christian life the way they ought to be, it will not be a picnic.Immediately you're saved, it's not long - if you're living the Christian life the way the Bible tells me about it -until you find the foe face-to-face in your life, and you immediately realise: 'This is a battle that I am in'.Now, there's a gospel song - and I must say, I do not like it all, it grates on me every time I hear it - some ofthese American singers sing it: 'Sunshine and Roses'. Now, that's not the Christian life that I read about inEphesians chapter 6 - there are many blessings within it, I don't underestimate that, but it is certainly not all'Sunshine and Roses'. It is a bloody battlefield, it is a terrible thing that we read about where there is so muchat stake. We as Christians, we can't just be born again, we can't just have the blessing of God's forgiveness -what fool would turn that down? - but we are actually, when we trust Christ, when we are saved by the graceof God, being enlisted into the battle of the ages! And if you don't want to fight, you don't want Christ!So many within the church today have imbibed a materialistic view of life - it is not the spiritual but it is thecarnal. Materialism today is simply the philosophy that anything that is without a physical cause does notexist. This pulpit exists because a man made it, and that man was material - and a material cause had amaterial result. This building, everything you see around you practically - of course they deny creationtotally - but if it hasn't a physical well-being at the very beginning, it doesn't exist. So, of course, materialismdoesn't believe in your spirit. Materialism doesn't believe in God - but has the Christian church, andindividual Christians living and breathing in a materialistic world, somehow imbibed this view in theirminds? A world, and certainly now becoming a church, to whom the supernatural is a stranger! It almostdoesn't exist. When men talk about the supernatural there is a question mark in the mind of many Christians,a scepticism that the supernatural must be a stranger never to be courted. But, my friend, if you're going onin the Christian life - and many of you will know what I'm talking about: going on with God - you will find,very soon, that you're standing in a horrific battlefield in the war of the ages!If you doubt that, you only need to look at our author in this little book: where was he? He was in a prison,chained to a Roman soldier. This man Paul, if anybody knew, knew what it was to be in the holy war of God.Watchman Nee, in his famous book on the book of Ephesians, says that the Christian's experience in thislittle book begins with sitting - isn't that right? We are sitting in heavenly places in the Lord Jesus Christ,blessed with all spiritual blessings. He says that it then leads to walking: walk as children of light, walk inthe calling wherewith ye are called. But it doesn't end there, and that is why in chapter 6 we are met with notsitting, not walking, but standing. You see, you need first of all to sit before you can stand. That's the order inthe book, and that is God's order, the order the Holy Spirit has ordained within this theological treatise ofhow we are to live. You've got to know the blessings that you have in Christ before you can fight in thisbattle. You've got to come into the realisation of what Christ has done for you, and the blessings that He hasbestowed on you - and then you must walk worthy of that calling before you can ever stand against the foe.Paul calls that in this chapter: 'wrestling with wicked spirits' - wrestling! Have you ever wrestled with wickedspirits? Many people are, from day to day, attacked - God's own people - by Satanic forces, by principalitiesand powers, rulers in high places that we are reading about. Now we must beware, as many in this worldattribute things to the Devil that we bring on ourselves. In other words, when you break a divine law, whenyou transgress God's commands and precepts, and the outcome is bad - don't blame the Devil, it's your ownfault! Many of the things that we do that come from our own flesh, and the old man within our nature, are