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Muskegon SDA Church

Jason Sliger

The Armor of Light

Father in heaven, as we come into your presence together this morning as a church family, we've come here because we want to hear from our heavenly Father.

Not merely out of routine do we come to church, or out of obligation, but to worship you.

And so Father, as we open your word this morning, we ask that you would send your Holy Spirit to apply it in our hearts, right where it needs to be.

Last week in our study together, we looked at the time that we are living in, in the context of how the Bible describes it in the language of warfare.

We find that throughout the Bible, there are many ways that the Bible describes the Christian experience.

Sometimes it describes it in agricultural terms, sometimes in athletic pursuits, in other ways it describes it in construction, building and things of that nature, shepherds looking over their sheep.

There are lots of different ways that the Bible describes the Christian experience, but 1 thing that we find repeated throughout Scripture is the concept of warfare.

It is repeatedly mentioned throughout the Bible.

And as we look at scriptures from the beginning to end, and we did a brief history of this in our study together last week, we find that from the very beginning, all the way down to the time when Christ comes back, it is constant warfare that is taking place.

We looked at that great passage that we're so familiar with in Revelation 12 and verse 17, that Satan has come to make war with God's people.

In the Bible, we do not find described a wartime part of life and a non-wartime part of life.

The Bible simply describes our experience as war.

And the sooner we understand that we are in warfare, the better soldiers we will become.

Civilians, as I mentioned in our study last week, do not fare well when they are dropped into the middle of war.

They are unprepared, they are untrained, they aren't properly clothed, they don't have the right equipment, and if a civilian is dropped into war, many times that civilian will meet with death.

We are not civilians, we are soldiers, amen?

Testimonies for the Church, volume 8, page 313, says this, the Christian life is a battle and a march.

The effort must be continuous and persevering.

Continuous and there's no release until Jesus comes in the clouds of heaven.

Until that time, it is a constant battle and a march.

Now, perhaps the greatest tragedy, in my humble opinion, is when we find that as Christians, we fall under this warfare.

And I think largely that is due to the fact that we are not properly prepared when we go in to the battle.

And that's what we wanna take a look at in our time together here today, how we can be properly prepared.

Go with me in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians.

We started looking at this briefly in our time together last week.

We're going to delve into it a little bit more.

Ephesians 6 is perhaps the greatest passage when it comes to the concept of warfare in the Bible, the armor of God.

Ephesians 6, Paul is concluding his remarks to the church of Ephesus.

As he finishes this letter, he finishes off by telling them to put on the armor of God.

In verse 10, he says, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his...what?

Before Paul even gets into describing the armor of God, he gives 2 commands to God's people before they even put the first piece of armor on.

And as we studied this out in our time together last week, we found the first command that Paul gave was for God's people to be what?

It's interesting that if you look through the book of Ephesians, you will find that Paul uses this little phrase in the Lord, or some equivalent of it, about 38 times in 6 chapters.

Paul is getting the message across to the Church of Ephesus that everything in their life must be done in the power and strength of God.

So before the soldier goes off into battle, before the soldier clads himself in the armor of God, Paul first says that we are not going in our own strength, but we are to go in the strength of the Lord.

Now, any soldier needs to have a strong and courageous heart.

And we looked at last week how a soldier can be clad in all of the modern military garments, the bulletproof vests and the guns and all of the modern technology.

He can have all of that stuff and look like a soldier, walk like a soldier, and act like a soldier.

But if he does not have a strong and courageous heart, all of that stuff on the outside is gonna do little for him when he finds himself in war.

Especially a war like the enemy that we have to meet.

And so Paul tells us that before you put that armor on, you need to have a strong, courageous heart that is going to stand in the midst of the battle that we are about to fight in.

The next command that Paul gives is found in verse 13.

Just a quick recap here of our study last week.

Verse 13, he says, Wherefore take unto you the what?

The whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand." Second command that Paul gives before the armor is even talked about is to put on how much of it?

He says put all the armor on and remember it's not yours.

Because any armor that I make is flimsy when it comes to the time of war.

Last week we talked about how armor that we make is like cardboard.

And it might work when people throw sticks and stones at you.

But it's not going to work when the enemy of all enemies comes against you in that spiritual conflict.

And so Paul says, listen, this is not your armor, this is God's armor, and don't go with just part of it on.

Don't go into battle without your breastplate or without your helmet, but he says, go with the whole armor of God.

It is his, he owns it, He prepared it, He bestows it, He gives it to you to be able to fight against the greatest of all enemies.

In manuscript release volume 10, page 116, we're told this.

Let everyone who names the name of Christ read this scripture again and again.

Everybody is to read this scripture how often?

You know, I find it interesting, there are passages in the Bible where Ellen White tells us that we should spend a great deal of time studying them.

And they're passages that we're very familiar with.

There are ones like, oh yeah, I've heard that 1 before.

But she says we need to study them again and again.

And then she says this, and then inquire.

Am I closed with the whole armor of God that I might be a successful co-laborer with Christ?

You see, it's not just an intellectual assent to the passage of scripture.

It's not just being able to rattle off what the armor of God is, that there are 6 pieces of the armor and that this represents that and that that represents this in the Bible.

It's not just an intellectual understanding that she says we need to gain, but an experiential experience where we are clad and have that armor on.

There's all the difference in the world between being able to say, this is what righteousness is, this is what salvation is, this is what faith is, and be able to practically define it, but it's completely different to actually have it on.

It's completely different to use it when the battle comes.

And so she says we need to look at this passage again and again and then ask ourselves the question, am I clothed with the whole armor of God?

Now before we get into this, I wanna share with you a couple of passages that you might find encouraging.

Just jot them down in your notes if you would.

2 Corinthians 10 in verse 4, the Bible says this, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

This is the type of armor that God is wanting us to put on.

It's an armor that is mighty to the pulling down of the strongholds of God's enemy, Satan.

Promises of victory, 2 Corinthians 2 in verse 14.

That Bible says, now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ.

Now keep that little piece of information tucked behind your ear, that triumph comes when we are in Christ, because that's gonna be important here in just a moment.

First Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 57, just jot these down.

But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory, amen?

There are passage after passage in the Bible.

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The Armor of Light

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