Armor of the Battle

INTRODUCTION:

“I want to start this morning with Pilgrim's Progress which is a book written over 300 years ago by John Bunyan. It's an allegory of the Christian life. The main character is a pilgrim. His name is Christian, and he pilgrimages from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. What it is is a walk through the Christian life. It's amazing to me that over 300 years ago if you read it and apply it, you're going to say wow that's like all the things that I encounter. Nothing's really changed. We're not the first ones to encounter troubles and trials as we try to follow Jesus. Everybody's done that for 2,000 years to follow Jesus in the world.

I want to start this morning with a particular incident as Christian trekked through something called the Valley of Humiliation. I quote from the book, he says:

'… he saw a foul Fiend … whose name is Apollyon.” (Apollyon means destroyer.) “Then Christian began to be afraid and to wonder whether he should go back and stand his ground. But he considered again that he had no Armor for his back. And because of that, he realized that to turn back might give Apollyon the greater advantage to pierce him with his Darts. Therefore, he resolved to venture on and stand his ground. For, thought Pilgrim, it would be the best way to stand.'

Not turn and run, but to face the opposition. And standing and facing the battle properly is the best way to stand.

That's what we've been talking about and we'll continue to talk about. We saw last week that the real battle of the Christian life is a spiritual battle. Says there in verse 12 that we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

The battle is not a physical battle against other people or even against ourselves, but our enemies are spiritual, and their weapons are deceptive schemes, their weapons are lies and deceptions and false teachings. We saw that these lies come into our everyday lives in the form of deceptive attacks, mainly on our core identity as people and as sons and daughters of God.

This battle, even though we can't see it, and it's a spiritual battle, it's a real battle, and it's actually relevant to us each and every day. It's dangerous to ignore this battle. Today, we're going to see that God has given us his armor to effectively engage in and win the battle of the Christian life.

We'll talk about the specific pieces of armor and why it is effective in spiritual battle. We'll consider how to properly apply it in our everyday lives, that's where we're going to end.

The question for us this morning is, will we face the enemy? Will we take up the armor of God? Will we fight, not a flesh and blood battle, but a spiritual battle? Will we engage in the fight? That's really our question for us here this morning.”

~~~