Grosey's Messages

Bible readings for Sunday August 13

Call To Worship   Psalm 27

Law/Grace  Joshua 1:1-9

6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

Bible reading Ephesians 6:10-20  Ready For Battle #2  vs 13  STAND!

Benediction: 1 Corinthians 16: 13,14,23 

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.14 Let all that you do be done in love. 23 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.24 My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Ephesians 6:10-20  Ready For Battle  2  Appropriating God's Armour vs 13  STAND!

Resisting the powers of darkness by Appropriating the Armour of God.

Clinton Arnold.

The Christian Life is hard.   Powerful beings strategise and attack.

The Lord makes His power and resources available to you.

   The Need for God's grace

The Range of Spiritual weapons

The Absolute dependence upon Prayer and the Holy Spirit. (18, 11 INCLUSIO BOOKENDS).

Aorist.. vs 14 STAND!!

Pray in the Spirit, Strong in the Lord, armour of God.  Trinitarian.

¹³ Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

1.       When to Stand… the evil day.

13 that you may be able to withstand in the evil day,

Paul urged his readers to "make the most of the time because the days are evil" (5:16). Consistent with his apocalyptic Jewish heritage, Paul is convinced that believers live in the present evil age (Gal 1:4; Eph 2:2)—an era characterized by demonic activity and filled with various forms of evil. The difficulties of the present age will only intensify as the coming of the Lord draws close (see 2 Thess 2:1–12; Mark 13:8; Matt 24:8). The final resolution will come only when God intervenes and all of the rebellious powers are brought under the headship of Jesus (1:10). Until that time, Satan and his forces will plot and strategize on how they can oppose God's redemptive plan, assail the church, and torment the lives of believers.

An "evil day" experience comes at various intervals throughout the lives of God's people when the powers of darkness execute their strategies () in an effort to cause believers to fall. Eadie referred to this as "a time of resolute Satanic assault,"³¹ and Ellicott spoke of a period of "violent temptation."³² The apostle Peter experienced this shortly after Jesus warned him, "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat" (Luke 22:31). On that occasion, Jesus modeled the importance of prayer so that Peter's faith would not fail (22:32), that is, so he could stand firm.

Preparation for the battle does not take place once it begins, but well in advance. With the temporal participle "once you have prepared" (), Paul indicates that a significant investment of time and effort is expended in becoming well prepared for the inevitable attacks. Because the verb can mean not only "prepare," but also "accomplish" or "defeat," some interpreters have argued that the word in this context indicates that the battle has already been waged and the victory has been accomplished.³³ The preceding (6:10–11) and following (6:14–18) context, however, stress how victory is to be achieved, not that it has already been won by believers.

What are these schemes? I think here of the work of William Gurnall, the Puritan divine who wrote more on these eleven verses than anybody else in any language. In his 1,200-page study of The Christian in Complete Armour, Gurnall exposes Satan's craft in knowing both when and how to make his approaches. Satan attacks:

When the Christian is newly converted.

The early days of our Christian lives are glorious. Before our conversion we were dead in transgressions and sins. Now we are alive. Before, our minds were darkened by the evil spirit of this world. Now we see spiritual things clearly. Before, we did not desire fellowship with God. Now we do. Before, we were discouraged. Now we are filled with optimism and great joy. Ah, but that is when Satan comes—when, like Eve, we are not yet confirmed in any strong path of obedience. He trips us up. Then he says, "I see by your sin that you are not a Christian after all. Your 'conversion' was temporary. You have fallen away. You might as well settle down now and follow me."

When the Christian is afflicted.

When things go well the devil frequently leaves us alone. But when we go through times of affliction, as most of God's children do from time to time, the devil is often quickly there to suggest that God has abandoned us or that we are not really his children. "If God loved you, he wouldn't let you suffer like this," Satan argues. "If God is good, he obviously doesn't care about you. And if he isn't good, well, what's the difference? You might as well curse him for his wickedness and sin as you please."

Job was tempted like this, although the tempting words were channeled through his "friends" and wife. God had permitted Satan to destroy Job's wealth and family and then to afflict him with boils—to show that Job loved God for what God was in himself and not for what he gave Job materially. But when Job lost all these things—possessions, children, and good health—Satan was there to say that it was because of some deep, hidden sin in Job's life. "Job, you just think you're a righteous man," said his friends. "You can't be. This is a moral universe. Bad things don't happen to good people. So if bad things are happening to you, it is because you have done something terrible, whether you know it or not. God is punishing you." His wife was even more outspoken. She said, "Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!" (Job 2:9).

When the Christian has achieved some notable success.

This was Peter's experience. Jesus had asked the disciples who they thought he was, and Peter had responded, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:16). This was a great insight, so great, in fact, that Jesus immediately explained its source, saying, "This was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven" (v. 17). Jesus then went on to speak about his coming death and resurrection. But Peter, riding high on his good performance, tried to persuade Jesus that his death was unnecessary and occasioned his stinging rebuke: "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men" (v. 23).

When the Christian is idle.

"Idle hands are the devil's hands," says a proverb. "If the devil finds a man inactive, he will soon find some work for him to do," says another. We remember David. The great sin in David's life was his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah. It is significant that David's failure began in a time of inactivity. It was the spring of the year when the armies went out to battle, but David (now in his fifties) stayed home from battle, leaving the conduct of the war to his trusted friend Joab. It was as he was idle in Jerusalem, lounging on the roof of his palace, that David saw Bathsheba and called her to him.

When the Christian is isolated from others who share his faith.

So long as we are with other Christians, our brothers and sisters in Christ, we are with those who can encourage, help, and, if necessary, call us to account. Generally, if we are in such company, Satan recognizes that his time can be better spent elsewhere. But get off by ourselves away from other Christians or, worse yet, get in close, intimate contact with non-Christians—and the devil comes. "I see you are finally away from those hypocrites who have been stopping you from having any fun," he observes. "Well, now you can do what you want to do, and they won't even know about it. Didn't God give you all these [evil] things to enjoy? So enjoy! And even if they are wrong, your doing them is certainly not going to hurt anybody."

When the Christian is dying.

Death is a time of physical weakness, at least if it does not come abruptly, and Satan uses physical weaknesses to afflict us. "At the hour of death, when the saint is down and prostrate in his bodily strength, now this coward falls upon him," writes Gurnall. "As they say of the natural serpent, he never is seen at his length till dying; so this mystical serpent never strains his wit and wiles more, than when his time is thus short. The saint is even stepping into eternity, and now he treads upon his heel, which if he cannot trip up so as to hinder his arrival in heaven, yet at least to bruise it, that he may go with more pain thither."

2.       How to Stand

Stand Completely Armoured 11  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God,

At the heart of this letter is the message that believers possess an entirely new identity by virtue of their relationship to Jesus Christ. This new identity is the basis for living in a manner that pleases God. Paul is clear that good behavior and the display of Christian virtue are not the basis for acceptance with God; rather, they flow out of the inner transformation that God has already accomplished in the life of every believer. Thus, Paul's appeal in this letter can be summed up as discover all that you are in Christ Jesus and live your lives on the basis of this new identity.

Paul can aptly summarize this new identity as having been "made … alive with Christ" (2:5). All who put their faith in Jesus Christ effectively participate with him in his resurrection and exaltation (2:6; see above). This participation with Christ in the key salvation events results in a present, vital, and ongoing relationship with him that Paul describes as being "in Christ" (see above). This expression, which Paul uses thirty-four times in Ephesians in its various forms, is Paul's definition of what it truly means to be a Christian.

They are no longer estranged from God, dead in sin, darkened in their understanding, and objects of God's wrath, but they are…

• alive with Christ (2:5)

• saved (2:5, 8; 5:23)

• a new creation (2:10; 4:24)

• brought near to God (2:13)

• given access to God (2:18; 3:12)

• profoundly loved (3:17–19; 5:2)

• God's possession (1:14)

• sealed as God's property (1:13; 4:30)

• God's inheritance (1:18)

• God's heirs (1:14; 3:6; 5:5)

• adopted by God (1:5)

• beloved children (5:1)

• members of God's kingdom (5:5)

• chosen by God (1:4, 11)

• predestined by God (1:5, 11)

• called by God (1:18; 4:1)

• redeemed (1:7)

• forgiven (1:7; 4:32)

• sanctified (5:26)

• cleansed (5:26)

• saints (1:1, 15, 18; 2:19; 3:8, 18; 4:12; 5:3; 6:18)

• part of the corporate body of Christ (2:15–16; 4:12, 13, 16, 25; 3:6; 5:30)

• members of the household of God (2:19)

• part of the new holy temple that God is building (2:22)

• possessors of the Holy Spirit (1:13–14)

• a dwelling place for Christ (3:17)

• a workmanship of God (2:10)

• light (5:8)

• servants of Christ (6:6)

These blessings are all facets of the new identity believers now possess by virtue of their union and solidarity with Christ. These elements of the new identity are not a form of literary hyperbole to enhance one's self-concept by positive thinking. They are reality and grounded in the objective work of Christ on our behalf.

"Put on" () is the common word for putting on clothing, but it is also used in connection with armor (e.g., 1 Sam 17:38; Jer 26:4; Ezek 38:4). Josephus, in fact, employs the same wording as this passage in describing a Jewish leader who had put on his entire armor (Jos., Ant. 13.309). Paul frequently uses this verb in a metaphorical sense for appropriating the essential virtues associated with the new identity in Christ ("clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility …"; Col 3:10, 12). Sometimes he conveys these virtues with the image of armor (e.g., "so let us … put on the armor of light"; Rom 13:12; see also 1 Thess 5:8). Paul used the verb earlier in this letter to enjoin the readers to "put on the new self that was created in the likeness of God in righteousness and holiness of truth" (4:24).

As we consider the nature of the "armor" that believers are to appropriate and use—truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, salvation, the word of God, and prayer—we can conclude that there is a significant correspondence between 4:24 and 6:10–17. As O'Brien has said, "Essentially, then, to 'put on the new self' is the same as donning the armour of God."⁸ In other words, knowing the truth of who we are in union with Christ, cultivating the virtues of this new identity, and using the resources available through this new relationship are at the heart of what it means to put on the armor of God. The aorist tense of the imperative should not be misconstrued to mean that it is a onetime action. The context suggests that arming should occur on a regular basis.

Stand Fighting.

and having done all, to stand firm.

3.      Where To Stand

Stand Firm   and having done all, to stand firm.