Enemies, Part 4: Who is the Enemy?

Discover biblical truths concerning the most important issue of our day: the enemies of Christianity. Our six-part sermon series, Enemies, delivers valuable insights on spiritual warfare and how Christians can be on the winning side:

Enemies, Part 1
Enemies, Part 2: The Enemies of All Righteousness
Enemies, Part 3: The Enemies of the Lord
Enemies, Part 4: Who is the Enemy?
Enemies, Part 5: Friends and Enemies
Enemies, Part 6: How to Deal with Your Enemies

Enemies Part 4: Who is the Enemy? is a sermon preparing us for the battle of the souls of mankind. Trust the Lord to get you through the battle as opposed to trusting your own strength.

Key Verses:
Ephesians 6:10-18

In recent days we have been talking about enemies. We started a series last Sunday and we will conclude it very shortly. Not that we have exhausted the subject but just feel the Lord would have us move into other things. Look at Ephesians chapter six verse ten. We will be reading verses ten through eighteen. The apostle Paul writes to the church at Ephesus:

Ephesians 6:10: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.”

Ephesians 6:11: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”

Ephesians 6:12: “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.”

Ephesians 6:13: “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

Ephesians 6:14: “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;”

Ephesians 6:15: “And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;”

Ephesians 6:16: “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”

Ephesians 6:17: “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:”

Ephesians 6:18: “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;”

Now, I call your attention particularly verse twelve:

I want to talk to you this morning about “who is the enemy?” We have talked about in this series, the enemies of righteousness. We have talked about the enemies of the Lord and there is an enemy of all righteousness, an enemy of all that is right and true and good. And there are enemies of the Lord, they are the same, there is no question about that, they manifest the same, they make themselves visible in different ways, through different entities but they are the same.

We understand that the enemy of the Lord, the enemy of righteousness must also be an enemy of every believer and follower of Jesus Christ. So, do you have enemies? If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, yes, you do. Who are your enemies? They are the enemies of the Lord. They are the enemies of that which is righteous.

But it is important to know who our enemy is because sometimes I think we get a distorted picture of who really is the enemy. We spoke on this same subject, but I am not repeating the same message. We spoke on the same subject about a year or two ago. But I think it is important that we look at it again.

You see, in a sports contest, we know who is on which team because they wear uniforms of different colors. A long time ago I was coaching high school sports and we had a game. We had a junior high team and a senior high team in our school.

We had a game coming up and a number of our high school players were not able to play and so we pulled up some of our junior high players to fill in. The problem was the high school players wear one color uniform and the junior high players wear another color uniform. This was a basketball game and every time we took to the court, we got a technical foul. If you know basketball you will understand that. Right away, every time we walked on the court we got a technical foul, every time. That did not help us in the game I guarantee you. But at least we were able to play the game.

Why do you wear different colors? To distinguish who was on which team. The action of any game, football game, baseball game, soccer game, particularly a fast-moving game like basketball, if everybody is wearing the same color, you might get confused and pass the ball to the wrong team and make some mistake like that. So, teams wear different colors and different uniforms so they can know who is on their team and who is on the opponent’s team.

In war, armies wear uniforms. That has been true throughout history. It is not as true today as it has been historically, but it is still true to a large degree. Why is that? So, each combatant can know who is on their side and who is on the enemy’s side.

Who the Enemy Is Not

They are identified. Well, as we already said, the believer in Jesus Christ will have enemies. That is because there are those who are enemies of righteousness and there are enemies of the Lord. But we need to be able to recognize the enemy. If we do not recognize who our enemy is, we run two major risks. Number one, we run the risk of being overtaken by the enemy because we are not aware of who they are and where they are. You cannot distinguish the enemy from friends, then that can be a major problem and you allow the enemy to get too close. Secondly, if we do not know how to recognize who the enemy is, we run the risk of fighting those who are not our enemies. I dare say that it happens too many times in Christian circles. Too many times Christian folk are fighting those who are really not our enemies. They may not agree with us on certain things, they may not do some things the way we would them, but they are not our enemies.

I am reminded of the story that we find in the gospels. One day some disciples came to Jesus, I am paraphrasing the story, of course, they came to Jesus and said that they found a fellow over here who is casting out demons in Jesus’ name and they told him to stop because he was not a part of their group. Said to leave him alone, he is not against us, he is with us. He is doing our work. The lesson in that story is this, there may be somebody over here serving the Lord and they are not part of your group. You do not recognize them, but they are part of your group. They are still on the same team. They may not use the same methods you do.

Do not misunderstand what I am telling you. I am not standing here saying that there are not people who would call themselves Christians who really are not on the same team because there are. What I am telling you is to be careful that you do not attack somebody who is sincerely serving the Lord just as you are but maybe they do not attend this church, or dress the way you dress, do things you would do, or do it the way you would do it. We need to be conscious of who else is serving the Lord besides us.

I will tell you something. About thirty-five years ago, there was a pastor farther up in the county, and his brother is with the Lord now. But he came here one day, and we were talking, a gracious man. He said to me this, I felt a little odd when he said it, he said, “You probably do not want anybody else to come into your area [meaning Delray Beach or the surrounding area] and start another independent Baptist church.” I said, “Why not?” He said, “Well, you probably do not want the competition.” I said, “Brother, on the contrary, we could use the help.” I would welcome that. You need more people who are preaching and proclaiming the truth.

In the Power of His Might

So, we have to learn who the enemy is, and the apostle Paul is about to tell us so that we can clearly, clearly understand. Take a look at Ephesians chapter six verses ten through eighteen and let’s learn who the enemy is. Look at verse ten:

Ephesians 6:10: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.”

You have a certain amount of strength. All of you, every one of you in this room has a certain amount of strength. We do not all have the same strength. Some of you are stronger than the rest of us, there is no question about that. I was joking around with one of the teenagers the other day and brother Johnson was standing next to me. You would never have expected this, but brother Johnson is a wrestler. You would never have thought that, would you? If you look at him and you cannot figure that out, I will wonder about your observation skills. He wrested in high school, and he wrestled in college. His coach in college was an Olympic wrestler, a very famous Olympic wrestler. And then after college, he coached wrestling for a while at a local high school. And so, he is a wrestler.

I was joking with the teenager and said, “Let’s you and I wrestle.” He looked at me like I was crazy. But I said, “C’mon, let’s wrestle.” I could tell that he did not want to. I kept talking to him and brother Johnson was still standing next to me. I finally got him to say that he would wrestle kind of reluctantly. I said OK and tagged Johnson and said you are not going to wrestle me; you are going to wrestle him. That is as far as it went. I guess I thought it was funnier than you did.

Anyway, we do not all have the same strength. Brother Johnson is far stronger physically than I am. There is no question about it. I have never wrestled him, I have never arm-wrestled him. I said one day in the other building, we had the maps out, I said, “Hey, you want to wrestle?” He just laughed at me, and it probably was laughable.

But we all have a certain amount of strength within ourselves but our strength in and of ourselves is not enough to do the fight that we need to fight. You are not going to make it. I am not going to make it. So, Paul tells us in verse ten to “be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” Let me give you two biblical illustrations of what that means.

David and Goliath

First of all, there is the story of David and Goliath. Now you all know the story and I am going to share it with you the way I have shared it with people for decades now. The story of the battle of David and Goliath gets distorted.

One day, many years ago, I was riding on a bus and as we were going down the road, a man stood up at the front of the bus and said, “If you look out of the right side of the bus and see that area that we are passing right now, that is the Valley of Elah, that is where David fought Goliath. I pulled out my camera, we were probably doing sixty miles an hour, I took a photograph, and I got a good picture of the Valley of Elah. But I have a better mental picture of it. And I thought wow, that was really the place where David fought Goliath.

And we preachers are probably guilty more so than most people. Sometimes you see it in a Bible study book or a Sunday School book, many cartoons have been made. This is kind of how too many times the story has been told and it is not the story. You can read the story yourself in I Samuel chapter seventeen to get the real story. it gets told like this when it is told so often. There was this guy, Goliath, and he was a great big bully, he was so big, and by the way, let me explode a myth for you, just in case you are wondering. There is a myth that big guys are slow. Do not ever, ever believe that. Let me disprove that to you in three letters, N-F-L. It is really simple, isn’t it? Goliath gets portrayed as this great big, overgrown, kind of stupid guy who is just a big bully.

And then David gets portrayed, and I just had this conversation with somebody last week, as a little kid who is ten, eleven, or twelve years old and probably does not weigh more than eighty pounds. And David comes on the scene and says (in a high pitch voice), “What is going on here?” Someone says that that big guy is challenging them. David says, “Isn’t anyone going to do anything about it?” They say no, everyone is scared of him. So, David says, “I am not, I will go fight him.” And so, Goliath comes out of the battlefield and kind of stumbles out there and says, “Duh, does anybody want to fight?” And David says, “Yes Goliath, I will fight you. Come on man.” That is not how it went at all. That is so wrong.

You read I Samuel chapter seventeen and you will find that this is the real story. Both these men were experienced fighters. Both of them were really, really tough. How do we know? It says so right in the text. It tells you that Goliath was a warrior from his youth up. That phrase “from his youth up” means he had fought many times and he had won many times. How do we know he won? He was still there. Yes, he was big, nine feet six inches tall. That means if we walk to our beautiful new courts out here and the beautiful new basketball goals out here which are set at the regulation height of ten feet, Goliath could stand under it and his head would be that far (six inches) from the rim. Wouldn’t you like to have him on your team? He would not have to do a jump shot, he would just put the ball in the basket, and who is going to stop him? He was a big man and he had four brothers who were also big men. If you read the story carefully, you will read that David took five stones. Why did he take five stones? There were four more big guys like Goliath.

So, Goliath comes out there and challenges the army of Israel, saying, “I am the champion of the Philistines and I want to fight your champion.” King Saul was the tallest man, the biggest man in Israel. King Saul, it says, stood head and shoulders above every other man in Israel. He was not as big as Goliath, but he was bigger than any other man in Israel, and he also was a warrior. The text does not say this, and I want to be clear about that, but I firmly believed that Goliath wanted to fight Saul. But Saul would not fight him.

David comes on the scene, sits there by his father, you know the story, to bring food to his brothers who were already in the army. Why wasn’t David there? Because someone had to stay home and take care of the family flock. David comes on the scene and asks what is happening. The situation is explained to him, and David says, “Is there not a cause?” — meaning, is there not a reason to take a stand?

His brothers tried to talk him out of it, but David said that he would fight this man, and he says this to King Saul, “Thy servant.” He presents himself as a servant, not a cocky attitude, not arrogant, he says, “Thy servant.” He was tending his father’s sheep when a lion attacked the sheep and David says that he killed the lion. On another occasion, a bear attacked the sheep, and David said that he killed the bear. Let me tell you, no ten-year-old, eighty-pound kid did that. He is a pretty big guy, not as big as Goliath, not as big as Saul but he is a pretty big guy, and he is pretty tough.

If you continue reading about David, you will find that David in his entire life never lost a physical fight. He lost moral battles and he lost spiritual battles, but he never lost a physical fight. And as long as he was with them, his army never lost a battle. So this is not the tiny little boy that often got pictured, this is a warrior, this was a fighter.

He comes out to fight Goliath and he tells King Saul and says I killed a lion and a bear, but he does not say that to Goliath. If he had been arrogant, we would have come to Goliath and said, “Buddy, you do not know who you are messing with here. I am David. I have killed a lion and I killed a bear and you are next.” He does not talk like that, he could have, most men probably would have, but David did not. Do you know what David said? He said, “I come to you in the name of the Lord.” He said, “For the battle is the Lord’s.” Here is his exact quote:

I Samuel 17:45: “Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.”

David says that he comes in the name of the Lord and he did.

Let me give you another biblical example.

Michael the Archangel

Jude 1:9: “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.”

Michael the archangel – do you know that the Bible tells us there is an innumerable company of angels. What does that mean? That means there are more angels than you can count. Do you know how many we know the name of? Three. There is Lucifer, there is Gabriel, the great messenger angel, and there is Michael, Michael the archangel he is called, Michael the warrior angel. You will find Gabriel gave messages to Daniel, he brought messages to Mary, He brought messages to Zachariah – Gabriel the great messenger angel. But you find Michael is the warrior angel. Here is what it says in Jude verse nine:

Jude 1:9: “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.”

The verse says, “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil.” Michael was contending with the devil. He would have done this. Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses,” – that is a story by itself.

The verse goes on, “durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke thee.” He did not day to make an accusation, he certainly could have but said, “The Lord rebuke thee.” Michael did not say, “Hey devil, I know what a scoundrel you are, I know all the things that you have done, I know what you want to do. Now, you have to tangle with me.” He does not talk like that. He does not talk like that at all. He says, “The Lord rebuke thee.”

These two stories tell us what Paul is saying in verse ten:

Ephesians 6:10: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.”

Do not trust your own strength. A great hymn we sing, “The arm of flesh will fail you, you dare not trust your own.” We trust the Lord and the power of his might.

The Armor of God

Ephesians 6:11: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”

I know some of you when you came in this morning and thought maybe we did not clean up the church this week. It did get cleaned up. But is this junk doing here? Who in the world left that there? I am going to tell you what that junk is. That is Roman armor. These are the shoulder pieces, they go here. I know what you are thinking. Put it on, not a chance. No have no idea how heavy that stuff is. This piece is the breastplate, the famous breastplate that we are going to read about. Is it real? It is real. Do you mean you have Roman armor here from the time of Jesus. No, it is old, it is about twenty-five, thirty years old. This is Roman armor, a replica, it is not the original. But it is real and is what the Roman soldier would wear.

Where is the rest of it? I do not have the rest of it, I do have the girdle and a couple of other small pieces and I do have one important piece I will show you in a little bit. But when we talk about the Roman armor, these two pieces are put together and all these pieces together comprise the breastplate.

So, when it says, “Put on the whole armour of God,” Paul did not originate that phrase. Most people who have read the Bible do not know that, but it is true. The phrase originates in Isaiah where we read about the Lord’s sore displeasure as we read about the sinful state and lossness and helplessness of the human race, and particularly of the people of Israel:

Isaiah 59:16: “And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.”

“There was no intercessor:” – there was nobody to stand between the people of Israel, the people of earth and the Lord himself. “His arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.” — Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might.

Isaiah 59:17: “For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.”

“For he put on righteousness as a breastplate,” – who did? The Lord did. “For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.” This is why Paul calls it the armor of God because it really is. We need this armor so that we can stand. Look at verse eleven again:

Ephesians 6:11: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”

I want you to think of the old cartoon “Road Runner.” When I was very young, one of my favorite shows was the “Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour.” I liked that so much. Not too long ago, earlier this year or late last year, I was out in Arizona on the ranch where my daughter lives and works. I saw a roadrunner and I saw a coyote. I wished I had a camera.

But you think of the old cartoon, some of the younger folk may say “What are you talking about?” Well, look it up it is on YouTube. The thing about the roadrunner and the coyote, the coyote was always chasing the roadrunner. Why was he always chasing him? He wants to kill him. Probably at first, he wanted to eat him. But after a while the coyote is so frustrated with the roadrunner, he does not care about eating him but wants to kill him. So, the coyote is always setting traps for the roadrunner. What does this have to do with the sermon? Listen to me, do you know what the coyote’s name is? Wile E. Coyote. That is his name. Take a look at verse eleven again:

Ephesians 6:11: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”

The word “wiles” there means the traps or tricks that the devil uses against people of God, just like all the traps the coyote set for the roadrunner. It is the same idea. That is where they got the idea for the cartoon. The wiles of the devil are the traps and tricks that the devil uses against the people of God. As Peter wrote, be sober, be serious, be vigilant, be watchful:

I Peter 5:8: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”

Who is your adversary? The devil. Peter goes on to say:

I Peter 5:9: “Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.”

The enemy that Paul is describing for us in verse eleven and that Peter describes to us in I Peter chapter five verse nine is the devil. You may ask, “You don’t really believe there is a devil?” Yes, I do. Have I ever seen him? No, thank God, and I do not want to. But the truth of the matter is that there is such an entity in the universe.

And so that leads us to verse twelve where it talks about other enemies. He says:

“We wrestle” – we are in a fight. But who are we supposed to fight? Again, you need to know your enemy. Notice the first phrase of verse twelve, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood.” That is an extremely important statement, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood.” What it is telling us is that our enemy is not people.

Offending God

What I am about to say next is not a direct quote from scripture. I want to be clear with you about that, but I think there is a great deal of truth in it, and you have probably heard it said, “We need to hate the sin and love the sinner.” That principle is in the scriptures, but you will not find those words in the Bible, hate the sin and love the sinner. What does that tell us? It means you and I must never approve of or accept anything as being anything right that God calls sin.

What is sin? It is an important question to answer, isn’t it? If we are going to hate sin, what is sin? What is it that we are supposed to hate? It is not a person; it is not a human being. The sin we are supposed to hate comes in Hebrew as one word and in Greek another word. The Hebrew word translated into sin means an offense, something that is offensive. An offense is something that offends.

So that raises the question, who or what is offended? Are you ready? The answer is God. It is that which is an offense against God, or that which offends God. So, sin in the Hebrew concept is an offense to God himself.

Did you know that in the state of Florida, if you are arrested and charged with a crime and you go to court, the court documents do not say, police officer so-and-so against you in court? It does not say that. It does not say that at all. It says, “the people,” or more often, “the state of Florida” versus you. Why? Because that is who you offended. You offended the law of the state of Florida. It is the same concept, the same idea. So, sin is an offense against God, you have broken the law of God, you have offended God.

Now, let’s go to the New Testament. It is commonly accepted that the Greek word translated as sin in English means missing the mark, and that is true. But that again raises the question. What is the mark? What mark did we miss? You could think of a target, and you could think that you did not hit the bullseye.

We had a fellow here at the church years ago and he was quite the marksman. He was not even twenty years old when what occurred, I am about to tell you about. We went to a gun range one day and I had not been to one of those in a long, long time. This fellow took a 38 revolver and at fifty feet unloaded it and hit the bullseye. Every shot went right in the bullseye. I was impressed and I was glad he was my friend because I would not want to be against him. That is the mark or what we think of as the mark. But the best answer is for what is the mark is found in:

I John 3:4: “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”

So, the mark that is missed is the law of God. In the Old Testament, sin is an offense against God. In the New Testament sin is a transgression against the law of God, missing the target of obeying God’s law. So then, we must never approve of or accept sin, we are supposed to hate sin. Why? Because it is an offense against God.

Now, we do need to love the sinner. Why? Because God does and He told us to.

Romans 5:8: “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”

God commendeth, literally, commissioned or sent forth, His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

Powers and Principalities

Again, Paul tells us here in verse twelve:

The word “principalities” means a ruler or the highest or first order. Paul tells us these are not flesh and blood rulers, they are spiritual rulers, and they are rulers of a very high position. The second word is “powers,” in that we wrestle against powers or authority. It is secondary to the primary authority of principality, but it is still an authority. This second authority indicates to us that there is a rank system, an authority structure similar to a military order. Why would that be? Let’s go back to Jude verse nine, Michael the archangel was contending to the body of Moses. Michael the archangel, that is a title, archangel. What does that mean? It means he was superior to many other angels. Do angels have a rank system? Evidently, they do.

Do I believe in demons? Yes, and I make no apology for it. Satan himself and demonic spirits are fallen angels. When did that happen? Read Revelation chapter twelve. You can also incorporate with that Isaiah chapter fourteen. Put those two chapters together and you will have a pretty good idea.

Here is what I am trying to get across to you. There is a rank system or authority structure similar to military ranks with the angels The powers are an authority, but they are not at the level of principalities. They are a rank level, I suppose a good way to say that would be a level below that.

The next phrase is “against the rulers of the darkness of this world,” W.E. Vine, and his “Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words” says of this phrase, as being “Spirit powers who exercise satanic and therefore antagonistic authority over the world in its present condition of spiritual darkness and alienation from God.”

Did you get that? What is he saying of these rulers of darkness? “Spirit powers who exercise satanic and therefore antagonistic authority over the world in its present condition of spiritual darkness and alienation from God.” – that is what it means, the rulers of the spiritual darkness of this world.

These are the enemies and then one more. Paul says, “spiritual wickedness in high places.” The work of Satan is being done at a high level. How is that?

II Corinthians 4:3: “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:”

Listen carefully, “But if our gospel be hid,” – If the Gospel of Jesus Christ is hidden, Paul said, “it is hid to them that are lost:”

II Corinthians 4:4: “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

Paul writes, “In whom” – the lost, “the god of this world” – little “g,” “hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,” – those who did not believe, the god of this world blinded their minds, “lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” It is the work of the god (little “g”) of this world to blind the minds of those who do not believe in the Gospel of Christ. Why? So that they will not be saved.

We told you last Sunday that spiritual warfare is the battle for the souls of human beings. There is no question about it. It is not just about political issues. It is not about societal issues. It is a battle for the souls of human beings.

In the same book of Ephesians, Paul tells us that those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are saved and brought to life, eternal life, but they used to live before they were saved in the course or way of Satan.

He Made You Alive

There is a page on Facebook that is called “South Florida the Way We Remember It.” There is a lot of old photographs of South Florida. If you are like me and a lot of other folks here, you lived here for many decades, you remember a lot of those. Some of those pictures are older than I can remember but they put one on yesterday of a building.

I looked at that picture and I put a comment on that picture, “Some of you may not understand this but I became a Christian in that building.” They put up a picture of the building where I was saved, where I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior. It was the building and I thought, “Wow, look at that.” There was a time and a place in that building where I knew I was a lost sinner, separated from God by my sins, on my way to Hell. I knew all that, I just did not know what to do about it.

Pastor Richard Schermerhorn sat down, took his Bible, and opened it, and for the first time in my life had explained to me the Gospel of Jesus Christ so I understood it. I prayed and trusted the Lord Jesus to forgive my sins and save my soul and He did and changed my life forever. That is what we are talking about when we talk about being saved.

Your experience does not need to be identical to mine but it does need to be the same in this respect, you need to recognize that you are a sinner, you need to know that Jesus loves you and died for you on the cross and paid for your sins, rose from the dead and He is ready and willing to forgive your sins and will save your soul forever if you trust Him. That part does not change.

Paul says in Ephesians chapter two:

Ephesians 2:1: “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;”

The word “quickened” there, does not mean He sped you up. It means He made you alive. “And you hath he quickened, who were dead,” past tense dead, “in trespasses and sins.” You were dead, lost in sin, but He has brought you to life, literally, resurrected.

Ephesians 2:2: “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:”

“Wherein in time past” – meaning before you were made alive; before you were born again; before you were saved. “Wherein in time past ye walked” – Paul uses the term “walk” throughout his epistles. What he means by your walk is your daily life, how you live out every day, that is what he is referring to. “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,” – you walked like the rest of this world walks. Is there a problem with that? There is a problem with that. You see, Jesus Christ is going in one direction and this world, in general, is going in the opposite direction.

Let me make it a little clearer. Jesus Christ is walking and says, “Follow me.” Where is He going? He is going to Heaven. Where is the rest of the world going? The opposite way. Is the world going to Hell? That is exactly what I am saying. I do not want you to misunderstand. Your daily life was taking you on a path to Hell. That is exactly what Paul was saying in Ephesians chapter two.

“Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,” – The prince of the power of the air, who is that? “The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:” Look again at verse twelve:

Withstand in the Evil Day

Ephesians 6:13: “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

We have already talked about the whole armor of God, Paul referred to Isaiah chapter fifty-nine. Put on God’s armor so that you can stand when things get bad in the evil day. Watch it again, “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all,” – having done all is an important phrase, having done everything that you can do, you have given it your best.

People say, “Give it your best shot.” Well, you have. You have given it everything. You do not have any more to give. What can you do then? Having done all, “to stand.” Sometimes, that is all you can do. Just take the stand and stand, you have done everything else you can do. But you can stand with the whole armor of God.

Ephesians 6:14: “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;”

Isaiah chapter fifty-nine, again, talks about truth fallen in the street. Boy, is that every true today, isn’t it? Isn’t that a fact? Truth has fallen in the street. People are so ready to believe a lie. I was in Publix yesterday and this person was being very kind to me, so I did not want to be unkind to them. He talked about somebody I do not know really well, but I know this person. They said they lied, and that they lie on just about everything. I wanted to look at them and say, “Tell me a lie that they spoke?” But I did not want to press this person. I could have but did not want to. I wanted to keep the channel open so I could talk to them further.

Ephesians 6:13: “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

Now here is what we have to do:

Ephesians 6:14: “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;”

“Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth,” – you need to wear truth. What does it say about “loins girt about with truth”? I will tell you something as clearly as I can without getting too graphic. In many warrior cultures, the belief is that the center of your physical strength is your lower abdomen, just below the navel. The Japanese have a word for it, the Chinese have another word for it. But it is pretty much universal in warrior cultures and if you do a little study on anatomy and physiology you are going to find that the abdominal muscles are some of the strongest muscles in the body.

In present-day, 21st century America, people talk about strengthening your core. Do you follow me? OK, that is why it says to have your loins gird about with truth. You need to have the center of your strength be truth. You need to be bound up in strength and truth. Have you ever seen anybody do weightlifting or sometimes you see it in a warehouse or someplace where they lift heavy weight and they put on a big belt to support their abdominals and back? That is why it says to have your loins girded with truth, the center of your strength be truth. That is what it is saying.

Now watch this. “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;” These pieces [presenting the armor] right here comprise the breastplate of the Roman soldier. That is a replica of what the ancient Roman soldier wore. This is what Paul is talking about. It is heavy, it takes a long time for a Roman soldier to put that on. You have to tie it up and put it together, it is not easy. That is it, that is the breastplate of righteousness. Notice that it protects your chest. That is very important. It does just protect the chest; it protects your spine.

God is telling us here through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit writing through Paul. He says to put on the breastplate of righteousness. When you go to protect yourself physically, there are two areas you must protect above everything else. One of them is your centerline. What is a centerline? I will illustrate it to you this way. If you take a magic marker and you started right here at the top of your head and drew a line all the way down, that is your centerline. It is extremely important that you protect your centerline. Why? This is where all your vital organs are. Your heart is here, your liver is here, your lungs are here, all your vital organs are here. You have got to protect that. Do you know what else is here? Your spine is also in your centerline. Isn’t it interesting how God made us? So, you must protect your centerline, which is essential if you want to survive.

If you were defending yourself against an attacker and you had a broken arm, it would hurt and you may not be able to use that arm, but you could still defend yourself. If you get a broken rib, it hurts like crazy. It does not hurt just when it happens but every time you take a breath it hurts for a long, long time but you could still defend yourself. If you had a broken leg, it is hard to stand but you could if you had to and you could still defend yourself. If you get your centerline taken out, you are done. Do you understand that? Protect your centerline. Alright, look at what he says:

Ephesians 6:14: “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;”

Who’s righteousness? Not yours, the righteousness of God. Be strong in the Lord in the power of His might. Then:

Ephesians 6:15: “And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;”

Any soldier will tell you it is important to take care of your feet. You have got to take care of your feet. How are you going to stand and fight if your feet are infected, or your feet are injured? You must protect your feet.

Ephesians 6:16: “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”

A shield is something you put out in front of you. It is something you hold in front of you to block things with. And what are you blocking? He tells you. “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” – the launching of the attacks that will come against you. You are going to protect your faith. Then he says:

Ephesians 6:17: “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:”

I said there were two essential parts, the central part that you are going to defend, you must protect. You must protect your centerline and you must protect your head. Why? Because that is what you think with. You can get hurt almost anywhere else and you could still defend yourself. But if you get your skull cracked and you are done, it is over. Why? Because that is where your brain is, that is what tells the rest of the body what to do.

So, the two most important areas for you to defend physically speaking, are your head and your centerline. I could spend time talking hours and hours on that, but we do not have the time. That is what the Bible is saying here, breastplate and helmet, protect your head and your centerline. So far, all of these pieces of armor, the girdle, the breastplate, the shoes, the shield, and the helmet, all are defensive. These are for protection.

Our Offensive Weapon

Then we come to one offensive. That would be this [holding up a sword], this is a Roman Gladius. This is the sword that the Roman soldier would use. And this goes with that armor. When you read in Hebrews chapter four verse twelve: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword” – this is what he is talking about. This is the weapon with which the Roman army conquered all the world they wanted.

Why do you say it that way? They did not conquer the whole planet, they just conquered everything they cared about. They knew there was more world, they just did not care about it, it was not of any use for them. They did not even try. This was it, and when a Roman soldier drew this, it brought terror to anyone against them because they knew somebody was about to die.

So, it says, “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.” Now, after church, we are going to have one of these for everybody and you are going to fight everybody in the neighborhood. Do you think so? Absolutely not. We as Christians have never been told to do anything like that.

What does it say? It says to take the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. You know what? You are not supposed to take this out to the neighborhood, but we are supposed to take this out, the Bible. This is what he is talking about. This is the sword of the Spirit; this is the Word of God. This is our one offensive weapon. The rest of it is all defense to protect you. This is the offense.

We talked about sports not long ago. If you know anything about sports, you name the sport, you know the difference between defense and offense. This is your one offensive weapon, your one offensive tool. And so, what the Bible is telling us here is that we have this tool. You protect your head because that is what you think with. Paul writes:

Romans 12:2: “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

How are you going to renew your mind? Jesus said:

John 15:3: “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.”

Does that answer the question for you? You are going to renew your mind through the Word. Peter wrote:

I Peter 1:23: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”

The helmet protects the head that guides the body. Being born again through the Word of God. The psalmist writes:

Psalms 119:11: “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”

It is the sword of the Spirit. Again, this is not a Bible verse, this is a force term, but you understand the best defense is a good offense. We also talked about:

Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

“For the word of God is quick,” – that does not mean just fast, it means living, powerful. How powerful?

Romans 1:16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God” – stop right there. The word translated as “power” there in the verse is the Greek word “dunamis” from which we get our English word “dynamite.” It is that kind of power.

So, the Word of God is quick, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, “piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit,”—that is a pretty fine division between the soul and the spirit. Theologians sit around and debate what is the difference between the soul and the spirit. They are not the same, the Bible says there is a difference. But defining that difference is kind of hard, it really is.

The Word of God will tell you what is in your heart. After I got saved in that building, we talked about, I began reading the book of Romans. As I read through the book of Romans it was like looking at a spiritual mirror, it really was. Try it, I think you will see what I am saying.

Battle for the Souls of Mankind

Ephesians 6:18: “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;”

When are we supposed to pray? Always. We need an offense, we need the armor of God, and we need to pray. What is this world coming to? I will tell you what it is coming to. It is coming to an end, that is what it is coming to. How soon? I do not know, but I will tell you this, it will be sooner than when this service started. Have you thought about that? Until then, and I should say, as long as you and I are on the earth we are in a battle against the enemy. And that enemy is not that person who offended you. That enemy is the person who offended God. The enemy is not a physical enemy, it is not a human being. It is not that person who is doing wrong to you or wrong to me or wrong in general. That person is doing those things because they are wrong spiritually because they are lost, because they do not know God, and they do not factor God into their thinking.

I have heard this many times, but I think it is worth quoting, “Don’t be surprised when sinners act like sinners because that is who they are.” The enemy is a spiritual enemy.

II Corinthians 10:4: “(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)”

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal,” meaning fleshly, physical. And the rest of the verse, “but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds” — we are in a battle for the souls of mankind.

It is a spiritual battle and must be fought with spiritual weapons. The question is, where are you in the battle? I did not ask you if you are in the battle, you are. The question is where are you in the battle? Do you understand who the enemy is? We have just shown you.

If you do not understand read this passage again, Ephesians chapter six verses ten through eighteen. Understand who the enemy is. Again, understand who the enemy is not. Did Jesus say to go out and kill your neighbor? No, He would never, but what did He say? He said to love your neighbor. That is what it says. You may say, “Well, you do not know my neighbor?” Did Jesus say love your neighbor except for that one? No, He did not, He did not say that at all.

So, the question begins with this, have you been born again? It is not, are you in the battle, the question is where are you in the battle? Have you been born again? Are you trusting the Lord as your Savior? And beyond that, are you trusting the Lord to get you through the battle as opposed to trusting your own strength?

Watch the prerecorded live version of the entire service and sermon, Enemies, Part 4: Who is the Enemy?, on Facebook.