# War and Peace

Category: Peace & Assurance
Key Passage: Ephesians 6:10-13
Speaker: Adam Miller
Date: September 21, 2022

When pastor asked me if I would preach, I immediately thought about what it was that I wanted to preach. So I immediately knew what it was that I wasn’t going to preach. That’s usually how it works. Every time that I’ve been asked to preach here or back in New York, I always think about what is it that I want to preach. The usual arrangement between me and God is that I tell him this is what I want. He tells me that’s what he wants, and we go back and forth, and he wins. That’s how it works.

So I had something planned. Obviously, that’s not what God wanted. I was working on something else, but God just really kind of stalled that out on me. It just wasn’t going anywhere. Then he gave me this. I’m not going to really—it’s not really going to do a little Bible study here in Ephesians chapter 6, a few verses. But there are a couple of thoughts at the end that the Lord showed me that I want to share. I just hope that I can be a blessing to you.

If you all stand with me, Ephesians chapter 6, let’s all stand. We’ll read a few verses here. Ephesians chapter 6, let’s start in verse 10. 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 wiles 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 ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand.”

So we know this very familiar passage. Paul is telling us about being a soldier, and he’s letting us know that in our Christian life, we all are going to, in fact, face battles. I would even dare to say that if you are a Christian and you are not facing battles, you might want to examine your Christian walk. We know that that’s part of the Christian life. That’s part of the process that we go through—these battles.

We know Paul tells us here that we need to put on our whole armor. I enjoy history and I enjoy the medieval time period. I enjoy knights and armor and things like that. I’ve learned one thing: even back all the way back in the Roman time, a soldier didn’t always wear his armor. He didn’t wear it home all the time, but when he did have it on, he was ready to fight. When it was peacetime, when he was home with his family, when they weren’t at war, he didn’t wear his armor. When the armor was on, he was ready to go. He was ready to battle. He was looking to fight.

In this passage, we’re told to put on the whole armor of God. I’ve read through—I’ve been saved a few years. I’ve read through the Bible a couple of times, and I don’t see a verse in there where it ever tells us to take off our armor. So it’s implied that the Lord is wanting us to be willing and ready to fight anywhere, anytime. We’re going to see that in a couple of these pieces of armor as we get through it as well.

It also tells us that our warfare is not one that is physical. It’s not a physical one. Now, we may face physical opposition, but that doesn’t mean that we are physically fighting. It is a spiritual battle. He gives us a list here in verse number 12. It says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities.

What are principalities? Now you look it up in the dictionary; there are actually two different definitions. One is a physical definition, and what is a spiritual definition? The physical definition of principalities is basically a prince or a chief ruler. It’s a political office. It’s a person that is holding an office of authority. It could be a principality. Again, we’re not fighting them physically, but we all know, and we have seen, and I think we are seeing, that there are some physical human authorities in our life that we are fighting on a spiritual level. We need to be aware of those things.

The other definition of a principality could be an angel or some kind of angelic being. It could be a demon. It could be a devil. I don’t know. But those are the two definitions of principality: a physical and a spiritual definition.

It says, “against powers.” What are they? Brother Joel, powers? No, power is another authority figure that we have. It could be a group of princes or chief rulers. It could be a group of politicians. It could be a group of demons. We see that physical and that spiritual side of it.

It says, “against the rulers of the darkness of this world.” What is that? Physically, it could be another higher office that we’re looking at in our human earthly authority. In the spiritual side of it, I don’t know. Could it be that there are different ranks of devils, different ranks of demons that the devil himself sends out to us? I don’t know what that could be. But I think that each one of these things could have a physical and a spiritual side to it. Again, we’re not fighting physically; we’re fighting spiritually. But that spiritual fight could be against someone that is physically here with us.

The last one, I think it’s pretty self-explanatory: “spiritual wickedness in high places.” I’m pretty sure that’s not physical. The best representation or best illustration of that that I actually just heard recently myself was you think back to the book of Job. I remember the first part of the book of Job when the devil actually goes up into heaven. He travels back and forth into heaven with the angels. That’s where the conversation between God and the devil takes place of, “Hey, have you considered Job?”

I think that would be a pretty good definition of spiritual wickedness in high places. If the devil is traveling back and forth between earth and heaven, you have to wonder, is the conversation ever centered around us? Does God ever look at the devil and say, “Hast thou considered my servant,” and fill in the blank with your name? Are we living the Christian life? Are we fighting the Christian battle in a way that the Lord is taking notice and bragging about us to the devil? Look at his enemy in the eye and say, “Look what he’s doing. Look what she’s doing.” You got anyone like that? Are we living in such a way?

So Paul tells us we have this battle. It’s a spiritual battle. These are the spiritual forces that we’re going to face. Now we need to put on some armor.

You have to remember that when Paul was writing this, he was, at worst, sitting in a prison. At best, he was under house arrest. Either way, he’s surrounded by Roman guards, Roman soldiers. He’s had plenty of time to study the pieces of armor that they wear and to make an application to us in our spiritual warfare. So he gives us these pieces of armor, and we’re just going to go through them one by one, a little bit of a Bible study here tonight. It’s Wednesday night. Stick with me, because I know a lot of it’s going to be stuff that we already know. But like I said, when we get down to the end, there are a couple of things that the Lord showed me.

It says in verse 14, “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth.” The first piece of armor that he tells us is to have a belt. The Roman soldiers actually had a couple of belts that they wore. It was two pieces of leather that were put together. On one belt, they would carry their sword. On the other side, they would carry their dagger. Of course, that belt was there to help protect their midsection. It was thick pieces of leather there to help protect them. It was also a utility belt of sorts because they would wear sometimes a heavy chain mail piece of armor, a shirt—a shirt of chain mail. It was heavy, but that would buckle into their belt, which would then relieve some of the weight off of their shoulders.

The truth that we have that we’re supposed to exhibit in our own Christian life not only is it going to protect us because we don’t have to worry about any of the lies that are being hurled at us, but it’s also going to take that weight off of our shoulders, because we don’t have to wonder what did we tell this person and what did we tell this person if we’re just living the truth. If we are being truthful with ourselves, with others, with God, we don’t have to worry about that weight on our shoulders. We can have that protection of the truth.

Then it says to have on the breastplate of righteousness. The Roman soldier’s breastplate was curved horizontal pieces of metal that would fit around their chest. Inside were vertical pieces of leather to give it a little bit of mobility so it could move around a little bit. But it also had reinforced on the inside, on the front and on the back, with other pieces of metal to make sure that it was solid and it was secure. A soldier would be foolish to go out into battle without having some kind of a breastplate on, some kind of armor to protect their heart. I mean, that’s a pretty important piece. We need to have that armor to protect our heart.

The armor that we in our Christian life are to use to protect our heart is righteousness. We have to remember what it says in Isaiah where it says that our righteousness is as filthy rags. When I teach the kids in junior church, I will tell them this: Our righteousness is as filthy rags. We all know underneath our kitchen sink there’s that one dirty dish rag that we only use to clean up spills, right? It’s kind of dingy, it’s got some stains on it, might even be a little crusty. Doesn’t matter how many times you wash it, it still has that smell to it. When God looks down from heaven, that’s what he sees. We are a dirty dishrag underneath the sink. We forget that it’s even there until we make another mess and we need to clean it up. But that’s how God sees us.

But when we put our faith and our trust in him, we accept him as our personal Savior, we turn and repent from our sin, we ask him to forgive us, we put on his robe of righteousness. When God looks down on us, he sees that clean, spotless robe. It’s that robe of righteousness that is what’s going to protect our heart from the attacks of the devil. It’s not us. If we try to do it on our own, if we try to do it in our own righteousness, we’re going to fail every single time. We need to be relying on the righteousness that Jesus has given to us to protect us in that way.

In verse 15 it says, “And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” As I was researching this piece of armor, these sandals that the Roman soldiers would wear, I could tell you the pictures that they have; they do not look comfortable at all. They are different sizes of leather, pieces of leather, that they would strap around your foot. It would be laced up your foot and then tied securely around your ankle to keep it from going anywhere. They didn’t look comfortable. But those pieces of leather, the different sizes that they had, kept things from getting into the foot. They would also put little metal spikes through the sole of the sandal, almost like a cleat, so that they could have firm grip. They were ready to march or have battle in any kind of weather, in any kind of terrain. They could march over rocky surfaces, muddy surfaces, dry surfaces. They could even have a better grip in the middle of battle if they had to march over another fallen soldier. They had that grip. They were ready. They were prepared to go.

Well, it’s kind of like how we should be with the gospel. It says to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We know what the gospel is. We know that it’s the good news. It’s the death, burial, and the resurrection of Jesus. We know that according to 1 Corinthians 15. We need to be ready to share the gospel with anyone at any time in any place, whether we’re going out door-to-door on Saturdays or whether we are at work during the week or we’re with lost loved ones, wherever it may be. We should be ready to give an answer. We should be ready with that gospel to share it with the lost and dying world. We need to have that preparation.

It tells us in verse 16, “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith he shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” The Roman shield was actually… the soldiers would use it; it was multiple thin layers of wood that were glued together and then heated up by steam to make that curve that you would see in it. Then it was wrapped in leather to keep it all together, and sometimes they would even put a little spike on the front of it so that it could be used not only for protection but as a secondary weapon.

The reason why it was curved was so that when those projectiles came at the soldier—whether it be an arrow or a spear or a javelin or whatever it may be—it was designed so that when it hit, it would deflect that piece of whatever, the arrow, the spear, whatever. The reason why was because if it was a flat surface and that soldier put their arm up to stop it, it would take more energy for the soldier to stop that coming piece of equipment. But if it was deflected by that curve, it took less energy for the soldier so that they could then fight longer.

What is our shield? Our shield is our faith. We know, according to Hebrews, that our faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We know that heaven is real, but we can’t see it. We know that hell is real; we can’t see it. We know that God is there, even though we can’t see him. We know that the devil is real, even though we can’t see him. We have faith that these things are there.

In our spiritual battle that we face, when the attacks of the devil are coming at us, if we try to fight them in our own strength, we’re going to get worn out. It’s going to be like that flat shield where we have to exert more and more energy to try to stop the coming attacks.

As I was preparing, I was thinking about when Melissa and I were preparing to move down here. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a little over a year that we’ve been here. It’s crazy to think that. But there were many times in preparation, whether it be trying to sell the house, trying to find a job, trying to find a place to live here, whatever it may be, we knew—we knew, and we still know—that this is where God wanted us to be. In this church, in this state, we knew that this is where God wanted us. But every step of the way, it seemed like there was a roadblock.

If we tried to solve that problem on our own, we would have been exhausted—physically, mentally, spiritually. We wouldn’t have been able to fight that battle. But every time something came up, whether it be a person looking at the house and then deciding they didn’t want it, or this piece of paperwork that didn’t get filed properly or a signature on this, or whatever—any type of roadblock that came up—we could just sit back and say, “All right, Lord, you wanted it, fix it.” It was that faith that allowed us to get here, to allow us to get through all of that tedious process one step at a time, without us being so exhausted that we wouldn’t continue in the battle. So we need to have faith in God. We need to strengthen our faith and use that as our shield.

It says in verse 17, “And take the helmet of salvation.” Just as foolish as it would be for a soldier to go into battle without some kind of a breastplate to protect their heart, it would be just as foolish or more so to go in without a piece of armor to protect your head. The Roman soldiers’ helmet that they wore, it was heavy. It was reinforced iron. That was what their helmet was made of. It wasn’t just a helmet that they sat on their head; it was also a neck guard that went down the back of their neck and large pieces that went down the side of their face to protect their entire head. As I said, it was reinforced with that iron, so it was pretty heavy.

Our helmet is salvation. How does that protect us? The devil is going to come at you. He’s going to come at us, each and every one of us. He’s going to attack our mind. He wants to cause doubt. He wants to cause oppression. He might cause depression. He might cause us to doubt our salvation. But you have to take comfort in the thought—we’ve heard many men talk about it, preach about it, teach about it—that you don’t necessarily have to remember the exact day of when you got saved, but you should be able to look back at a time when you can say, “I did put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ. I trusted him as my personal Savior.”

When the devil comes to attack us, we can look back on that day and say, “No, I took care of it.” Think about it like this: Imagine that we’re sitting in a courtroom, and off to the side is the devil, and he is pointing his finger up at that judge, saying, “He’s wicked, he’s a liar, he’s a sinner, and he needs to be thrown into hell.” As you get ready to stand up to defend yourself, you feel a hand on your arm. You look over, and there is your lawyer sitting there, Jesus Christ, the Advocate. He looks at you and says, “Hang on, I got this.” He stands up, looks at the judge, and says, “Hey, Dad, I took care of this one.”

Then God the Father, the judge, looks down at that devil and says, “What sins are you talking about? I don’t remember them anymore.” We can take that comfort, that knowledge in our salvation, that when the devil comes and says, “You’re worthless, you’re not saved, you’re a sinner, you’re wicked, you don’t deserve it,” you can look at him and say, “You’re right, I am all of those things, I am wicked. But it’s under the blood. It’s taken care of. I’ve put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ.” So our helmet is our salvation that we can use.

Now, all of those pieces put together: we have the belt of truth, we have the breastplate of righteousness, we have the gospel shoes, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation. All of those things are pieces of armor that we use to defend ourselves when the devil attacks us. That is what we use to defend ourselves. We are going out and sharing the gospel with other people. We’re using our faith. We’re using God’s righteousness, the knowledge of our salvation—all of those things. Those are the things that we use to defend ourselves against the devil.

There is only one thing that Paul tells us that we should use to offend the devil—something that we should use to attack the devil, rather than being on defense or on offense. That’s at the end of verse 17. It says, “And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” We know that this Bible is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. We know that all we need to do is quote from this book, and we can win the battle.

Pastor was just talking the other night about the creationists and the evolutionists that were debating one another. When the creationists tried to use the big flowery words and the nice scientific arguments, his arguments fell flat. But when he quoted the scripture and he stuck to what God’s word said, that’s when he started to win that fight.

Back in the day when I was on Twitter, my group of friends, my claim to fame was that I was blocked by both Joel and Victoria Osteen. All I did was go through their account and say, every time they said something, I would simply say, “Yeah, but doesn’t the Bible say,” and then post a Bible verse that was the exact opposite of what they were saying. Within a few minutes, both of their accounts had blocked me. That was my claim to fame.

It reminds me of something else that took place in the Bible. Remember when Jesus went out into the desert and the devil came to tempt him? Jesus said, “It is written,” “It is written,” “It is written.” Think about it like this: Let’s say that the world champion heavyweight boxer challenges you to a fight. He says, “I know I’m bigger than you, I know I’m better than you, I know I’m more trained than you are, but I’m going to give you a fighting chance. I’m going to fast and not train for 40 days and 40 nights.”

When the time comes where you get in the ring and you start to fight him, even if you spent those 40 days training and exercising and building up your strength and your endurance, he’s the world heavyweight champion. What’s going to happen? It’s not going to take long for him to knock you out, right? That is what Jesus did. Jesus went head to head with the devil and said, “I am the King of Kings, I am the Lord of Lords, but I’m going to give you a fighting chance. I’m going to fast for 40 days and 40 nights.” When the devil came up to him in that desert and said, “Why don’t you do this? Why don’t you do this? Why don’t you do this?” He did the one-two-three knockout punch. He just said, “It is written,” “It is written,” “It is written.”

That’s the sword of the Spirit. That’s the weapon that we have in our own armor to use against the devil. We need to be utilizing it. We need to get into it. We need to learn it. We need to memorize it so that we can use it effectively.

You also have to remember that the sword that the Roman soldiers used was very short compared to any other sword. They say it was only about 18 inches. It wasn’t the kind of sword that the soldier would swing around and try to fight with; it was designed for short, quick thrusts. They say a Roman soldier could actually thrust that sword four times per second if they were trained properly. They would also alternate between a thrust of the shield and the thrust of the sword. It was designed as a one-two knockout kind of idea: shove your enemy back and stab them. Shove your enemy back and stab them while you are advancing.

We can use our faith. We can use our faith that God has protected us and that God will protect us, that God has provided for us, and he will provide for us. We can come to the devil and say, “Hey, the Lord’s got this one,” hit him with that shield of faith, and then get him with the Bible verse. Hit him with that shield of faith, get him with the Bible words. We could be going out and doing the exact same thing as these Romans.

Like I said, Paul had some time to study this. He probably watched some of these soldiers training. He got some good ideas, and he shared them with us. So these are our typical pieces of spiritual armor that we often will talk about. These are the typical pieces of spiritual armor that we teach the kids about.

Now, I need a little bit of class participation here tonight. When you come to the end of a thought or a sentence, what is it that we put at the end of it? A period. If you look with me down in verse 17, it says, “And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” What is at the end of that sentence? No period. So that means that there is a continuation of this thought. The sentence is not completed.

The next verse says, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.” When I teach the spiritual armor to kids, I always include this verse. This is the reason why. I always tell them this: You can be the best-trained soldier there is. You can know how to defend yourself. You can know how to protect yourself with that sword. But if you’re not in communication with your commanding officer, how are you going to know what your orders are? Who are you going to attack or retreat? Or who are you going to go run and help if you’re not in communication with your commanding officer?

Apostle Paul tells us here, “Hey, prayer is an essential part of your spiritual armor.” We need to be in constant communication with our commanding officer, with God, so that we can know.

It tells us in the rest of that verse, to watch thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. What does that mean? It means that not only are we praying to get our orders, but we’re praying for each other. We’re watching out for one another. Throughout COVID, you heard many people say, “You know, all the rich people, we’re in this together.” No, you’re in a yacht; I’m in a rowboat. We’re not in this together. But in this army, in this battle, we truly are in it together. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or you’re poor, you’re older, you’re young—it doesn’t matter, your nationality, your race—it doesn’t matter. If you have put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you are saved, you’re a Christian, you’re in this battle, we’re in it together. We need to be looking out for one another in prayer.

We can go to God and get our marching orders. We can find out, “Hey, where are we going to go?” We do that all the time. We pray and say, “God, what direction do you want me to go to? Do I buy this, or do I buy that? Should I tell this person, or should I tell that person?” Or sometimes it’s even a quick Nehemiah: “Lord, I need you.” Whatever it may be, we need to have that attitude of prayer as part of our spiritual armor.

Now, here we go. At the end of verse 18, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints,” period? No, semicolon. We have some more thought here. It says, “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.” And there’s the period.

This is the Apostle Paul. How many of you would say that you think the Apostle Paul is probably the greatest Christian that ever lived? You look at his life, right? We’re talking about the man who brought the gospel of Jesus Christ to the greatest man who lived on the face of the earth at the time, Caesar. He brought it all the way up to Caesar. He talked to dignitaries. He talked to governors. He talked to principalities and powers and rulers. He spoke to all of them with the gospel.

We’re talking about the man who walked into his city, started preaching, was dragged out of the city and stoned, and then got back up and went back into the city to finish what he was preaching. We’re talking about Apostle Paul, the greatest Christian. And what does he say? “Hey, while you’re praying for each other, would you pray for me to have boldness to do what I need to do as an ambassador?”

Did you imagine the Apostle Paul needed boldness? If the Apostle Paul needs boldness to share the gospel with friends, with neighbors, with lost individuals, wouldn’t you think we probably could use some too?

I have not—I’ll confession time—I have not passed out as many tracts as I know I should or could have. Because, okay, you’re going to find this hard to believe: as someone who enjoys politics, as someone who is heavily involved, that has talked with senators and with congressmen and with candidates for governor, and have sat down and interviewed these people, I am a natural introvert. I do not like people.

Melissa and I, you’ll hear us talk about our favorite things. One of our favorite things to do is we like to go out to antique stores and flea markets, and we like to go treasure hunting. Our most favorite thing to do is stay home. When we look out our balcony window and we see somebody on the building over there walk out, we go, “Uh-oh, there’s people.” We don’t like it, but we need to have that boldness.

I’ve been trying to get better at it. We went up Saturday; we had to go to a meeting after church. I made sure that we passed out some tracts. I passed out another tract today at work. I’m nowhere near the level that I should be. I need to be better. I need to have boldness. Even as someone who is involved in politics the way that I am, we all need to have that boldness.

The Apostle Paul is trying to tell us that, hey, we might be the best soldier that we can be. We might be the greatest swordsman when it comes to the Bible. We might even have that communication with our commanding officer that we should. But if we don’t have the boldness to use any of it, what good is it? If we’re just sitting at home and practicing with our sword, if we’re just sitting at home and hoping and praying, “Well, yeah, I have faith that God’s going to do something with somebody else over there”—what good is it? What good is our armor if we put it on and then we sit on the couch and do nothing with it? We need to have that boldness to go out into the world and go into that battle.

Here’s the thing: The Apostle Paul talks about how he obviously thought of himself as a soldier. In First Timothy—is it First or Second Timothy?—one of the letters to Timothy, he tells Timothy, “I have fought a good fight.” He obviously views himself as a soldier. He knows what his role in this army is. He also says that he’s an ambassador in bonds. He’s in jail; he’s there in Rome. He knows he’s an ambassador.

Those are kind of two different things, aren’t they? If you are a soldier, you’re looking to fight. If you’re an ambassador, you’re looking to make peace. How does that work? It’s simple: It’s that shield and that sword. It’s that shield and that sword. We go out and we battle the devil in war, and we try to broker peace between the lost world and God by sharing that gospel. We shield, we sword. We shield and we sword, and we share the gospel with the lost and dying world. We are soldiers and ambassadors. We are warriors and representatives. We need to be working these two seemingly contradicting ideas together in our own life.

Again, how does this work? We can have all the best armor, we can have the best sword skills, we can be in communication, but we need to have the boldness. We need to go out; we need to share the gospel with those that are around us. We need to make that effort to go out.

I don’t know if one of these things sticks out to you or if many of them do. I’m just sharing with you what it is that the Lord gave to me, that showed me these things. There’s nothing new. It’s stuff that we already knew, right? Maybe it’s the truth. Maybe it’s being bold. Maybe it’s prayer. Maybe it’s just thanking God for the salvation that we have and taking comfort in the knowledge of that salvation. I don’t know how the Lord’s going to use this in your life, but I hope that he has.

Original File: War and Peace - Brother Adam Miller PM 09212022