Bible Passage: Ephesians 6:10-18
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: September 15, 2024

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

I don’t know if you have ever noticed a certain little feature in our hymnal.  At the top of each page, in small letters, is a word that describes what type of hymn is on the page.  There are categories like Christmas and Easter.  There headings like Redeemer, Justification, Prayer, and Commitment.  I have here the hymnal from when I was a child.  This is my confirmation hymnal.  This old hymnal has a category for hymns that our current hymnal does not.  This old hymnal has a section called “Christian Warfare.”  It is not the largest section by any means.  But there are ten hymns in the section of Christian Warfare.

It made me think, “Why did they get rid of this section in newer hymnals?”  Some of the hymns have come over into the new hymnals.  But we stopped using the term “Christian Warfare.”  Did we think that term too violent?  Did we think the concept of warfare offputting?  I don’t have the answer.  I am not a hymnal editor nor do I aspire to be a hymnal editor.

But we shouldn’t shrink from the terminology of warfare.  Not because we have some sort of blood-lust as Chritians.  Perish the thought!  We are followers of the Prince of Peace!  But Scripture throughout uses the language and the metaphors of war to describe our present existence.  We are at war!  That is the language of our text today.  Our text today would fall under the heading “Christian Warfare.”  And our God wants us to be Forewarned…and Forearmed.

There is a classic book written on war called The Art of War.  It is written by a Chinese general and it is studied at West Point today.  In it General Sun Tzu says, “Know your enemy.”  In our text, God says the same.  Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the schemes of the Devil.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (v. 11-12)

So what are we up against?  Not flesh and blood!  But the spiritual forces of evil.  This is the devil and the demons of hell!  In our Bible study this past Wednesday evening, we studied the vision of Revelation 12.  In this vision Christ’s Church on earth is portrayed as a woman and the devil is pictured as a big, red dragon who is out to get the Church.  Revelation 12:17 says, …the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring – those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus. (Revelation 12:17)  You have been forewarned!  If you hold onto Jesus, the dragon and all of hell is at war with you!

How will the attacks come?  What are, to use the words of our text, the “schemes of the devil” (v. 11)?  The devil will stir up hatred and persecution of Christians.  The goal of this strategy is that Christians will lapse from Christ for fear.  He has had some success with persecution.  But he has other schemes.  In our Catechism we speak about praying that the devil would not “deceive us, or lead us into false belief, despair, or other great and shameful sins.” (Explanation of the 6th Petition of the Lord’s Prayer).

I wonder if sometimes we think the devil is only about that last one.  “Great and shameful sins.”  He wants you to fall into some gross, ugly, slimy sin.  That is true.  But why?  You trust in Jesus.  You are forgiven!  The devil wants you to become Judas.  He wants you to fall into a sin that you think is so bad that you cannot be forgiven.  Ah, you have taken your eyes off of Christ!  You have lost hope in Christ!  You are in despair!  He can work with great and shameful sins.

But let’s never forget that other scheme of the devil.  How he tries to deceive us and lead us into false belief.  To deceive is to lie and trick people.  It’s the original scheme of the devil.  After Eve was tricked by the devil, she told God, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. (Genesis 3:13)  Jesus said to his followers, Watch out that no one deceives you… (Matthew 24:4)  Paul would write these chilling words to the Corinthians about the false teachers who had made their way into the congregation:  Such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ.  And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising then if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. (2 Corinthians 11:13-14)  Think of that!  Satan has workers inside of churches acting like preachers who are really deceiving people right out of the Kingdom of God!  Don’t believe me?  Listen with a discerning ear to what many liberal churches are preaching today and you will find all the proof you need!

So what shall be done?  How shall we stand such an enemy?  Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. (v. 10)   We must find our strength in the Lord, not ourselves!  Now Paul gets us dressed for the battlefield.  He runs through all the items that made up the soldier’s armor:  the belt, the breastplate (think body armor of today), the sandals, the shield, the helmet, the sword.  We have God-given armor for our battle!  To defend against the devil’s lies and deception, we have the belt of God’s truth!  So we don’t despair about our great and shameful sins, we have the breastplate of Christ’s righteousness to cover it.  The good news of peace in Jesus is like wings on our feet!  We take the fight to the devil; we take light into the darkness.  The fiery lies of the devil bounce off the shield of faith.  Damnation is not our end!  We wear the helmet of salvation, God’s rescue in Christ!  And against the attacks of Satan, we have the counterthrust of the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God!  And Paul says, Pray in the Spirit.  We pray against the devil!  We pray the devil back.  In short, our armor is all of this.  Word. Sacrament.  Bible. Baptism. Communion.  Christ!

What, in the end, is the goal of Christian warfare?  Is it not victory?  That is what we have in Christ.  The resurrection of Jesus means victory!  Victory over hell!  Thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!   (1 Corinthians 15:57)

Amen.