In his sermon 'Equipped for the Battle', Carl Provost examines Ephesians 6, highlighting the spiritual battle faced by Christians and the necessity of donning the 'whole armor of God.' Provost emphasizes that the strength to stand against the devil's schemes comes from God, not from personal might. The armor consists of truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, and the word of God—all essential for withstanding spiritual attacks. He illustrates the reliance on God’s power with the story of Gideon, who achieved victory against overwhelming odds by trusting in God. The sermon also stresses the importance of prayer, not only for personal strength but for the entire community of believers, to boldly proclaim the gospel. Paul’s imprisonment is cited as an example of how God uses circumstances for His purposes, encouraging believers to remain steadfast and prayerful in all situations.

Please take your copy of God's Word and turn to Ephesians chapter 6. Starting in verse 10. Starting 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 walls 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 armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand therefore having your loins gird 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 fury 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 and for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in bonds that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak heavenly father we come before you father as we recognize that you have given us instructions for life and Father, as we come to this text today and we recognize that we have all been called to the battle, that we have all been called to stand strong.

And Father, I pray that as we read and study this text today that your Holy Spirit would teach our hearts and impress upon our hearts and sanctify our hearts, Father, to be those who stand firm upon the truth of your word, who stand firm upon the gospel of grace. We pray in your Son, Christ Jesus' name, Amen. Well this section that we come to today, as we get close to the closing of Paul's letter, it says, finally, my brethren. So basically, as we look at this, there seems to be a culmination of all that he's teaching coming to an end here as he's warning them to implement what he has taught them to this point in this letter. The letter started off with his first three chapters was this theological teaching of what Christ accomplished for us on the cross and our position if we are those who are in Christ Jesus and how it's been changed.

And we are no longer enemies of God, but we are joint heirs of Christ Jesus. We're taught in chapter 2 that it wasn't anything that we did ourselves. It was by grace alone, not of works, that we were saved. It was trusting in the finished work of Christ on the cross and faith in Him that saved us. He goes on to talk about the unity of the body of Christ and how we're all unified under the headship of Christ and we serve As the body of Christ here on this earth, as His hands and His feet, as His servants, but He's the head.

He goes on to get into more practical teachings from chapter four onward. And he teaches us how we must live with each other, how we must live with other believers. He teaches us that we must walk in love with one another, encouraging one another. He gives instructions to wives and husbands and how they are to live with one another. He gives instructions to children and parents.

And he lays out these authority structures that are in place. And he talks to slaves and masters. And now he comes to this point where he's teaching us how we are to live in the world. And one of the reasons we have to understand is for us to go out into this world, He wants us to understand that it's a battle, and that we all have been called to this battle. But in order to be able to stand strong, it starts with the home.

It starts with the marriage. It starts with the children, and how we relate to those authority structures that God's put in place in our life. And it starts with the church and how unified we are. And if we're going to stand strong against the schemes of the devil, We have to be prepared for the battle. And in order for him to build his kingdom, in order for the kingdom to advance and cover the face of the earth, we have to be those who are unified under the headship of Christ.

We have to be those who lead our families according to these gospel truths and that we instruct our children and train them up and teach them and help them to implement this armor that he's going to teach us about today. As we prepare for this battle, Paul describes, the way I've broken up this text today, is our position, our enemy, our armor, and our orders. Now Paul, being a bond servant of Christ Jesus, was also chained to a Roman soldier. And as he tries to help us have a better understanding of what the Christian life is like when we go out into the world and when we go out under the powers of evil that are in this world. And as we are used for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ, he was looking for an analogy to teach us.

And he drew from this idea of the armor of these Roman soldiers. But first, our position as soldiers in God's army. It says, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the walls of the devil. For we wrestle not against flushing, but against principalities, powers, against the rulers of this darkness of this world, against the weaknesses in high places.

It says, wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. Now here in three different verses we're told to stand strong. We're told to stand in the mighty power of God. And again in verse 13 where we're told to be strong and put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to withstand in the evil day. And so think about This idea that Paul is using here of a battle, and of soldiers in a battle.

And you've got a position that has been won by your commander. And you are instructed to go out there and hold that position, and not to give up any ground. And as those who are in Christ Jesus, as those who are the Church of Christ Jesus, soldiers in His Kingdom, we are to stand strong, But we are told that it's a position of strength that doesn't come from within us. It's not us going and training hard at the gym. It's not the types of tools that we see used in fleshly battles.

But we are told that this strength that we have to stand against the walls of the devil – the word walls can mean schemes of the devil – is the mighty power of God. And as we've learned through this entire epistle, He constantly points us back to that it's not anything in you, no good work that you did, no power that's in you, it's the power of Christ Jesus in you. It's being in Christ and having Christ in you and allowing Him to work through you. The power that we have is nothing in ourselves. The power that we have comes from Christ Jesus.

We see this demonstrated in an Old Testament story with Gideon. Gideon was told to go against the Mennonites. A large army had gathered and he called for the men of Israel. 32, 000 men arrived. God told Gideon, it's too many.

32, 000 against 135, 000, God says it's too many. If you defeat the enemy, they will think, the men of Israel will think that they did it. And so he said reduce his army and those that were afraid, 32, 000 against 135, 000, 22, 000 were willing to withdraw. And he was left with 10, 000. And again, God said, too many.

And God whittled it down to 300 men. And there was a vision given and an interpretation. And Gideon recognized that it was from God and it was that God was telling him that the Midianites were given into his hand and he gathered his three hundred men and he devised a plan and they went out to battle And I won't go into all the details, but these 135 Midianites fled. And as they were chasing them down, we are told that 120, 000 of the Midianites died that day. Now when you recognize that, that's a 400 to 1 ratio.

You recognize that there is no way you can give the victory to men. You can only give the victory to God. And that's where their strength was. It was in God. God fought for them.

And when we are in this battle of life in this world, in this spiritual battle that we're called to, we must stand firm in the strength, the mighty power of God. We're also told that we must stand against the schemes of the devil. And so our position is to recognize that he is devising plans against us. He's attacking us from all angles and We must be prepared. We also recognize from this that we will come under attack.

If you are living for Christ Jesus, this world will attack you for your faith. If you are not under attack, you're probably not living for Christ. You're probably compromising. And we are not to give up any ground. Next, let's see the enemy and how Paul describes the enemy that we're up against.

Verse 11, the second part there, it says, stand against the walls of the devil, for We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. And then down in verse 16, we're told that we have to stand against all the, and quench all the fury, darts of the wicked. And so we're given a description of our enemy here. And we're given a description of the type of battle that we're in. First of all, the devil is an angelic being.

And oftentimes we give him, we need to recognize that he's a very powerful being. And then apart from the strength that God has against him, We cannot stand against the devil in our own strength. It requires the armor that he's given us of the truth of his word and the different pieces of the armor that we'll go through here shortly. But we also have to recognize that He's not omnipresent. And so when someone says, the devil made me do it, it might be the devil, but he can't be in all places at all times.

He's not God. And he has a host of falling angels that serve him, and they're doing his work in his bidding. But we also have the old man until we are glorified, a flesh that has temptations. And if we are not constantly watching, if we're not constantly ready for the battle, that as we're told in Scripture, that we and our flesh can easily give into the temptations of this world. But ultimately what we recognize here is that Satan is behind all the evil in this world.

He is the father of darkness. And when we read in verse 12 it says we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness in this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places. We have to recognize that in most of those descriptions, there is a flesh and blood person representing that we can see. But what Paul is teaching us is that behind that person, that there's a greater scheme going on and there is one who is leading the wickedness in this world and it is Satan and that even if we were to remove all of those that were in the flesh and blood that were our enemies, that it would not remove Satan. And so fighting with the world's weapons is not sufficient for a spiritual war.

And what Paul is telling us here is we're not in the kind of wars that you're used to seeing. And the Ephesians understood war. They had Romans Passing through their city all the time, they saw the armor that the Romans wore. They also have a history of a people who were known for fighting themselves as the Greeks. They all knew the stories.

They all knew when 300 men stood against Xerxes and held them off for many, many days to keep him from coming into Greece. They had great pride in their fighting abilities. And Paul is saying that this is not the kind of battle you're in. Those types of weapons will not help you. But he used this analogy in a way that they could understand how to arm themselves and defend themselves for the spiritual battle.

See, Ephesus at this time was one of Satan's strongholds. The pagan religions going on there, in fact, they recognized many different evil spirits in their time. They recognized the rampant evil that was going on. And for those that were saved out of this paganism and brought into Christ, they were now able to see this battle that was going on, even in their city. When some were saved, we are told elsewhere that they went out and burned their books of connotations.

Many of them had been practicing in witchcraft, but yet God saved them. But yet, God saved them. And he's pointing that the power even behind these false religions is Satan. See, the devil also, we're told, disguises himself as an angel of light. He's very good at this.

I mean, we think of some of the cults, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, or even within the church, the liberal theology, how those that have brought in just a little bit of error mixed with truth have led so many astray. And those that have taught men to trust in their own works and to destroy the gospel, that to take away this offer of free grace, and to build up a workspace salvation. And those liberals that deny the virgin birth, that deny the resurrection of Christ, taking away all the mighty power of God from the Gospel. Leading people to not trust the Bible. That's the way Satan works.

That's some of his schemes. And there's a reason why we are told that 80% of high school kids that go to college deny the faith in their first year of college because they haven't been prepared to stand against the schemes of Satan. And even though it might be a college professor that's challenging their faith, that ultimately the grand schemer behind all of this is Satan. But we are in a time in our world that in many places is not much different than Ephesus. Satan, in many places in Ephesus, does not have to disguise himself as an angel of light, just like in many places here.

We're now putting up statues to Satan in some cities. And we have all kinds of wickedness and evil paraded on the streets in front of us. But yet people deny that Satan exists. They don't even want to recognize that we have an enemy. Jesus, we're given a story of how he was taken out into the desert and tempted.

And he was given an illustration of how the armor of God is used against Satan and the temptation of Christ. And so as we look at this armor, it's kind of like, think about an armor and then look at it on the back and it's stamped, tried and tested and proven. We're given an example from Christ Jesus in how to bear this armor. And Paul is teaching us what we must do to put it on. So what is this armor that we need in order to stand firm in battle?

Verse 14. In battle. Verse 14, stand therefore having your loins gird about with truth. Your loins gird about with truth. Now within a Roman soldier's uniform, when they were ready for battle, they would pull up their clothing and bond it in such a way that their legs could move freely, so they could run freely and to be able to confront the enemy and wouldn't be hindered by their clothing at all.

And so this is an important aspect of their mobility. And Paul is saying that this agility in battle that comes from the loins girt about is truth. See, as God's people, we are to be people of the truth. When we are bathed in the truth of God's Word, when we feed upon the truth of God's Word, when we memorize it and we know it and we teach our children the truth of God's Word, we are preparing them to stand against the schemes of the devil. And when he comes in and he speaks lies and he attacks, we can stand firm upon truth of God's Word.

We can know the lies that he's telling us. And when we are confronted with challenges against God's Word, When you know the truth, and you know that the Word is the truth, you are ready to defend yourself against attacks that come against God's truth. This is having a good foundation in God's Word, a good Christian worldview. This is one who is not easily swayed by every wind of doctrine. And this is also people that are a people of truth.

They recognize that we are those who live a certain way because of the truth of God's Word. We're also told to put on the breastplate of righteousness. Now the breastplate was the hard plate that went over the breast and midsection and it covered all the vital organs and it would have sleeves attached to it but this one part was to protect from a lethal blow from a spear or an arrow And here the connection that's made is that we put on the breastplate of righteousness. And so how is it that this righteousness protects us in this battle, this spiritual battle against the devil. How do we keep Satan's accusations against us from being that fatal blow?

That blow that tears us down or brings a load of guilt upon us and causes us to not be bold for the Gospel, causes us to not stand firm in the faith. In Zechariah 3, 1-5 we're given a vision. It says, And he showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And The Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?

Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will close thee with change of raiment. And I said, let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head and clothed him with garments, and the angel of the Lord stood by.

And so what's taking place here is This vision of Joshua the high priest coming to the temple or coming before the king and he has dirty clothes on. And the representation there is it's the filthiness of His flesh. And Satan the accuser is there to accuse Him. But the prince takes off the filthy garments and gives them royal garments. And this illustration is used throughout the New Testament that we are to put on Christ Jesus, lay aside the sins that are in our life, and put on Christ, and it's used in this letter.

And the idea here is that it's not Our righteousness in the sense that something we have done ourselves it's Christ righteousness and it's been imputed to us and It's this understanding that all of our sins past present and future have been atoned for on the cross. He died for your sins. And all of His righteous works were imputed to your behalf. And you now stand before a holy God righteous because you are covered in the righteousness of Christ Jesus. And it's this understanding of the righteousness of Christ that allows you to stand strong against your accuser.

Because you know it's not the wickedness and the accusations from Satan that should bring you down because you recognize that they have all been atoned for. But we also should live in a righteous way. When someone makes accusations against you and your character, you should live in such a way to let your character speak for itself. We also see that you should have feet shod. It says, therefore, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel piece.

Now this, the shoes were a very important aspect of a soldier's uniform. It allowed them to move quickly. And there are stories of men who moved much quicker than their enemies thought they were able to because they had good shoes and were able to surprise their enemies. And this is implying a readiness. Feet shod with the preparation of the gospel peace, or the readiness of the gospel peace.

And so you need to be ready and prepared to be one who shares the gospel. Ready to give a defense of your faith. See, we at one time were enemies of God, but we are now at peace. And when we are speaking to those, even our enemies that are coming against us, we have something to offer them. That there is a hope beyond this world.

There is a hope. There is a hope that would save you from the pressures of this world, from the difficulties of this world, and that hope is the gospel of Christ Jesus. And that you no longer have to be enemies of God, you no longer have to be under the wrath of God, because we have a gospel of peace. And we see that we must take up the shield of faith. See the Roman shield was two foot wide by four foot high and it was made to protect the whole body and they could sort of squat down behind this and in fact a garrison of men could come together and put their shields together and create a wall to protect them and this was used it says to above all taking the shield of faith well with you shall be able to quench all the fury darts of the wicked." It's saying that Satan is constantly throwing fury darts at us.

He's constantly attacking us. And the shield was made that whenever an arrow was shot, that had been dipped and lit on fire, that when it would hit the shield, there was the material that it was made out of, and it would put the fire out. And so, you know, some of these arrows might make their way through part of the shield, but the fire would be put out in the process. And they could hold them when they were approaching an enemy, or if they were approaching a wall, they could hold them overhead. But this is what our faith is like.

When we have faith In the promises of God, we have faith that we are truly in Christ Jesus and that we are truly righteous and we know the truth of God's Word. It's that faith that protects us from all those attacks that come upon us. And those attacks come from all over. They come from those outside, but they oftentimes can come from those inside, even in our families at times. But Yet, when we know that we have faith, we can stand firm against the devices of Satan.

And the helmet of salvation. See, the helmet protected the head. If someone got hit in the head, it could oftentimes result in a fatal blow. Or even knock them senseless in battle, which would then make them unable to fight. And so the helmet protected The point of being able to reason and think.

And for us, our helmet is salvation. It's that understanding that Christ already won the battle. It is finished. And that if we trust in Him and have faith in Christ Jesus, that we are being saved and we will be fully saved. We will be glorified bodies and spend eternity in heaven with Him.

And No matter what pressures come in this world, no matter what attacks come against us, knowing that we are saved will allow us to stand against the pressures of this world. We're also told to take up the sword of the Spirit. Now as some have said, this is the only offensive weapon. Some of these others have a little bit of an offensive aspect, but this one is the offensive weapon that we use. And it's the Word of God.

It is what Jesus used against the temptation of Satan. James said, Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. And so the weapon that we use for spiritual warfare is when we know that truth and we have that truth in us, it's using God's Word as a sword. That Word that can cut to the heart of men. That word that can point out their sins and show them the need for a savior.

Listen, so as soldiers in God's army, what are your orders? Verses 18 to 20. It says, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching there and to with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak." See, in the process of standing firm and in the process of wielding God's sword, The power behind all of this, the power behind God's people in the advancement of His Kingdom, the power of tapping into the power of God is the prayers of His people. Praying always.

And it says all prayer and supplication. So all types of prayer. Thanksgiving. And it's not just supplication for ourselves. And it says, in the Spirit.

And we're also told, watching thereunto with all perseverance. It's a constant readiness. Praying and watching. Praying and watching. It's not laying aside your armor.

It's always being ready. Because Satan is always attacking. And it's a supplication for all the saints. See, this is the importance of people of the church praying for one another. This is an importance for coming together for special times of prayer.

Prayers and supplications for the saints. There's a battle going on. And some of us are on the front lines. And some of us can tell us stories about evil spirits. I'm sure you could, Pastor Nane could have many stories for us.

And there's a battle going on and we are called to put on the full armor of God. But we are to be praying for those who are on the front lines of the battle. And Paul asks, he says, and for me that utterance may be given unto me and that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. He's asking them to pray that his mouth will be open and that he would speak the gospel boldly. And he says, for which I'm an ambassador in bonds, there when I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.

Now I want us to take quickly and look at Paul as an example. Paul is an ambassador in bonds. Here he is chained to a Roman soldier. And what is he asking the Ephesians to pray for? He's asking them to pray, not that his bonds are taken away, but that he would speak boldly.

He recognized that right where he was at was where God wanted him. And that God used this two-year setback of him being in prison to bring him before the whole Jewish council and three of the highest political officials in Palestine, Felix, Festus, and King Agrippa. And he was able to share the gospel with all of them. See, because he was arrested and imprisoned on false charges, but yet he recognized that it was God's plan for him. The lesson that we should learn from this is that no matter what our circumstances in life, no matter what the setbacks that we have, recognize that God is using us where we're at, and that our prayer would be like Paul's prayer, that we would speak the truth boldly no matter our circumstances, and that we would pray for one another.

So the next time you find yourself in what seems like a setback in life, remember that you have a sovereign God and He who has purposes that we don't understand. And that you must put on the full armor of God and be prepared for battle. And so, teach your children the truth. Prepare them. Strengthen their faith so that they can stand righteous before the attacks of the world that comes against them.

And that they can be used as arrows in God's battle. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we come before you and we thank you that you've given us this word, Father. That you've called us all to the battle and that we are to be busy about building your kingdom. And that we would recognize that we have all been given different gifts, but yet we were all useful in your army.

And Father, we pray in your Son Christ Jesus' name, Amen.