One Hour. One Book: Ephesians

okay as we take a look now at the book of Ephesians I want to take a moment and walk you into the story you remember that Paul began his writing career with 1st and 2nd Thessalonians and he did that during his second missionary journey he did it between 51 and 54 in the Common Era this is 10 years later he has now written a number of other letters during the third missionary journey that include probably Romans first second Corinthians he's written probably Galatians during that time and and that third journey was pivotal in moving from the very excite and the exciting writings of prophetic thinking of 1st 2nd thessalonians to some very polemic writing some teaching writing some yes jesus is coming but not right now and so we need to fix what's going on in the church and so we've been looking in first in 2nd corinthians that how he got under the hood of the church and started to work on it you've been taking some courses to find what he did with romans as well trying to address the roman church and get under the hood of that church and deal with the issues of surrender and how it looks in the life of a believer by the year 61 to 63 we have Paul in a in a what's called a light chain arrest a light chain arrest is that he was arrested and sent to Rome and he was put near the Tiber River we know the area that that was that belonged to the Jewish community of that time he was staying near the Tiber River in an area where people who were cloth dyers and cloth workers were there are a number of insulae a large island like the word insula is the word for island large condominium blocks that have been discovered not far from the Jewish community in Rome and so we know where he was about where he was but I want to set you a little bit into that time frame of his life he had been in the third missionary journey writing polemic writings to the Romans and Corinthians probably to the Galatians as well and then at some point he had come back to Jerusalem he was arrested in Jerusalem for taking a Gentile beyond the the sore egg or the balustrade inside the temple and he was taken off first to the area of Caesarea by the sea and there he went before Felix and Festus and Herod Agrippa the second giving defenses of why he was arrested trying to explain to them that he had not violated any Jewish laws and they didn't do what he was accused of at a certain point Paul probably would have gotten away with what what that he was accused of it probably would have been let off I'm not trying to say he was guilty he wasn't I'm saying he probably would have beat what the accusations raised against him were the problem was that part way through the trial he appealed to Caesar and that meant all trials were broken off and he is sent to Caesar and by 61 he is sitting under a light chain a house arrest now this house arrest is it's not that you can't leave the house because somehow you're dangerous or you'll escape it's that there is someone who is attached to you and their job as a Roman guard is to get you within the hour in the face of Nero when he calls failure to bring the the person who's to be questioned by Nero to the Emperor within the specified period of time would cause the death of the person who's guarding you so they have every interest in keeping an eye on you and never letting you getting very far from the palace Rome and the palatine hill where the the emperors were sitting for much of their time and of course nero had a much much broader area that he had he had on Rome was undergoing a series of people coming and going constantly on the arteries and veins of the Roman Roman Road system bringing people that were to be questioned by the Emperor because they appealed to Caesar only a Roman citizen could do this and Paul had done it when he did it he finds himself under we'll just call it house arrest and he's waiting there by the Tiber River and he can't come and go freely but he is able to take guests come and go from his house and they're able to talk to him and so what happens is he is meeting these delegations from churches and meeting people who are involved in church work and in the meantime he's explaining the gospel to these guards that are attached to him it appears to be a new phase of ministry for Paul because he goes on and says that there are guards that are and the whole household of Caesars is becoming aware of the gospel because of my my light-chain ministry and this is a guy who knows how to take an imprisonment and turn it into a ministry and what I love about this is during that time he's receiving word about the church at Colossae he's receiving word about the church at Ephesus or the church at Philippi and and he's going to address a certain problem that's going on in those churches and in Ephesus I want to draw a picture of the problem that he is overcoming so someplace between 61 and 63 in the Common Era is the date for the letter to the Ephesians Paul is in Rome he's under arrest he's got time on his hands and he hears that there are believers in Ephesus that are Gentiles in background that have come to Jesus Christ that are finding Judaizers pressing them and telling them that they are in fact second-class citizens now by this time Luke has probably already written the Gospel of Luke mark is already out on the street the Gospel of Mark the book of Acts is already mostly being written or probably finished off during this this time period of arrest and so just to set it into the New Testament story let me just tell you a story about what's going on in the background of Ephesus and maybe it'll help you Ephesus is a city that was the major jewel of Asia Minor it's in western Turkey today but Ephesus was a city that was like it was kind of like the Paris if I could say it that way of the Roman world it was an older city that had some famous monuments like the temple to artemis just to the north and east of the city it had a 25,000 seat theater that you can still go and visit that's that hugs the side of Mount beyond it had this sprawling metropolis with an Arcadian way that went down a marble way that went all the way down like a que out to the to the piers it had some very large arcades an open forum this was a really world-class Roman city Ephesus the problem was in addition to being a world-class Roman city it was a port city and the port was in decline so as the port was going down it was the problem was that the harbour kept setting up the case de river brings a lot of silt and it was silting up and said they had to keep scraping out the harbour in order to keep boats able to get up to the caves today if you go to Ephesus you are a long distance away from the sea and there are cotton fields between the Arcadian way all the way out to the beach and all of that was the case to River but now the river is silted and moved all the way out and what's important here is he's receiving some messages from Ephesus and the message disease receiving are that people are putting down these Gentile background Christians and saying you're not really as blessed by God you're not really part of the kingdom of God some of the Galatia argument has rubbed off on on emphasis if you guys really got your act together you'd be like us Jewish believers and you would have all the things that we have and all the background that we have in Sabbath and in circumcision and in kosher laws and you'd be doing those things so you have the Ephesian believers that seem to be beat down just a little bit now along with that I want to tell you something else I want you to imagine you're Paul you're in Rome and you're sitting there under house arrest who do you think gets the position of watching this five foot balded Jew with a big nose who gets to watch him the best of the troops do you think they take their first frontline troops and make them prison guards because they don't I want you to imagine that there was a methodology of moving people under the occupation of Rome into being a Roman citizen follow me for just a second a lot of words but to get to something really important let's say you're a Gaul you're a captain of the Gauls and you are so we're gonna put a big fuzzy Pelt's on you and wild weapons and you're and have hair that's all dreads or whatever and you're I am a Gaul okay now you we're gonna wear bones or I don't know what you I don't know how you dress but you're a Gaul and you're a captain among Gauls a chieftain among the Gauls now Rome comes out to your neck of the woods and they start putting up a berm and running roads and and putting up a stockade fence and and putting up a series of towers every couple of hundred feet and they start creating Rome has come to a village near you you didn't know this but welcome to Rome we brought it to eat since you didn't come to us we brought it to you now you're on the frontier Roman soldiers would be sent out Legionnaires would be sent out and they would stand against these wild-eyed Gauls and the Gauls would attack them and because of the p l'm in particular this long spear that the Romans made it was very intelligent design had this long spear with this point but was almost like a fishhook the point would go in but you couldn't pull it back out so even if you threw a peel him and it went through the guy's shield it probably would hit him but even if it didn't he couldn't get it out so you can't operate you can't walk around with a shield with a big peeling handle hanging off because it's of no value so the guy ditches a shield now he's shield less and then you just slaughter them the interesting thing about the Romans was that they had worked out in technology and organization this military might the shock and all and this overwhelming ability they had these ballista stones that were that were about eight pounds apiece they could they could toss those things with his ballista Z's catapults they could toss those things about a quarter mile at high speed nobody had seen anything like this or would see anything like this until there was gunpowder brought into the scene so the Romans had these incredible technological advances by the way they borrowed them they were originally Greek they just altered them and he used horsehair bound together that was had a very good tensile strength and they would use that as kind of their their bands to pull back and pull back and pull back and then release them now my point is this you're a god these guys come out and they have an overwhelming army you're gonna lose so in the process of the war they you know they whoop your troops and you are brought in and you are made captives the Romans decided rather than just keep killing off all their enemies because that's not really how you build an empire what they would do is they would have a process whereby they would take this Gaul chieftain and turn him into a Roman captain but to do that they have to walk him through romanization or savita's is the word city what city rome civilize him to civilize him is to romanize him and so what they would do is take this this dread locked wild eyed fur Laden bone wearing Gaul and turn him into a Romans soldier that would make him a Roman but very often once they do that process they're not gonna throw him out on the front line he's not the first person who's going to represent the Empire if he has a trade and he's an engineer maybe they'll have them out there building aqueducts or roads as part of his you know one hand has a sword the other hand has a trail kind of nehemiah asking but at the same time a lot of them got stuck with lousy duty like guard duty so I want you to imagine that Paul sitting in Rome there's a light chain attaching him to some guy who used to be a Gaul who has now got a Latin name who's now learned to be a Roman and has gone through the romanization process but he's not real happy why because he's a Roman but he's a second classroom and right in the middle of that experience looking at these second class Romans and listening to them murmur about how they don't get the best of anything and they don't get the best you know the guys who are out there fighting on the front line that may not look appealing to you but that's where the spoils are to the victor go the spoils and the guys who are fighting on the front line can go breaking through and take gold and take jewels and bring them home along with skins you know they get to keep stuff so if you're on guard duty you're not keeping anything so I want you to imagine Paul sitting there and he's dealing with these guys who are not happy about the work they're doing because they feel like they're second-class citizens and in the meantime he's getting letters and delegations from the churches among the Gentiles that they are not happy about they're coming into Christ not because of Jesus but because they feel like they're second-class Christians do you see the parallel between the two what's interesting is Ephesians is structured around some things that happen to a Gaul to become a Roman in other words this letter parallels two realities it is how a Gentile becomes a Christian but it's also how a second class citizen Roman soldier came from the pagan world and was a pagan world they're all pagans came from this this uncivilized world is the word I'm looking for it came from this uncivilized world and was taken in and became part of savita's became part of civilization so here's what I want you to see the book is broken down into three parts and when you take a look at Ephesus what you'll see are three boxes then one of them is chapters 1 2 3 and this will be the call of the believer this is how a believer was called and what it means to be a part of God's kingdom as a called believer and then 4 1 2 6 9 is the conduct of a believer and that is how one is to act because they have been called and finally 6 10 through 20 and then there's a few personal notes after that is the conflict of a believer and that is helping the believer to understand what God has provided for them in the face of the conflict spiritually speaking what I want you to understand is that there was a process by which one was taken from the world at large and brought into Rome and there was a process by where whereby one was taken from the unsaved world and into Christ ok these are two parallel things let me just talk to you for a few moments about how a Gaul would become a Roman and I'm going to give you verses to parallel this with do you understand what I'm doing right so you're you're using one illustration in the physical world to talk about a spiritual reality this book really does set out like a living parable okay in in chapter 1 verse 4 one of the first things that happened when a Gaul was defeated and I'm using Gauls just because they're easy but they could be any number of people's that were defeated what the first thing that happened was that those who were left over from the battle those who were remaining from the battle were chosen by families and given Roman names you cannot be a Roman without having a Roman name remember that there there is a a prefix name then your name then a cog Naaman if you're a an important family or an upstanding family or an equestrian family and then name if in fact you are of extraordinary renown so for instance there's a guy named Gaius of the Julii a clan but he becomes important he becomes a Caesar so his name is Gaius Julius Caesar but his title is Imperato where he becomes this one with imperial privilege he's a person who is able to lead troops and so you end up with this long four-part name now Gaius is his name that's always been his name and people would call him Gaius growing up but he's of the Julia clan and his clan name his Jemez name follows his his regular street name you are given a name a clan name when you join or become part of the Roman people you have to belong to a clan and that clan has to be attached to a piece of land somewhere so one of the things that happens is you are chosen by a group of people and you are given a clan name this is the beginning of you becoming a Roman and would you notice that in chapter 1 verse 4 one of the things that happened when a gentile came to jesus christ was he was reminded that he was chosen by god that he was placed into a family by god and that the word chosen by the way in verse 5 the way that's done in rome is you would be adopted by that clan and in verse 5 in chapter 1 he there's a sorry in chapter 1 verse 5 he is there is also an adoption that takes place so let's say it this way to go from being a goal to being a Roman I had to be chosen by a family given a clan name I have to be adopted by them to go to come into Christ I have been chosen by God the Father and I've been adopted by him in fact the next thing that I am given is something that is terribly important to a Roman I am given an inheritance so I become part of a clan and therefore I have the clans inheritance or piece of ground now the way they did this was they gave you this little token ship and usually you put the token ship and I was hanging on the end of your armor if when you went out to battle these little tokens were actually had Roman numerals on them and what they were were like such a sight or lot identifiers this is your piece of land along the Tiber River now you're never gonna live to see it ok and 46 other guys have the exact same piece but there's somewhere else in the army and you don't know that all you know is that you have been given a piece of an inheritance and should you live long enough you will actually get to inherit land that belongs to your clan or gents and you will belong to that piece of property but here's what's important you're a guy who has nothing you have lost the battle but in becoming a room and you become not only a Roman citizen but you get a piece of inheritance now you're feeling really good about the whole idea of inheritance and I would remind you that one of the things that chapter 1 verse 14 says that is that when these Gentiles became part of the kingdom it says literally he's given us a pledge of our inheritance that's a token of our inheritance if the token that you would hang and that token of our inheritance spiritually speaking of course is the Holy Spirit but for a Roman this would be a small token that's literally put on their belt or attached to their apartment and so the third thing you would get after you're being chosen adopted as an inheritance now the next thing that has to happen is you have become part of something but you don't know what it is how do you know who does salute how do you know the different ranks of people in society guys if you know anything about the Romans it's this everything everything everything was a spectacle to remind you of who you are in society where you said how many of you can picture your mind's eye the Colosseum where you sat in the Colosseum and the size of your seat was determined by the class that you were in so you didn't walk around with this kind of I'm a part of the middle class I think you know exactly who you were you knew was more important than you and who was less important in class class distinction was an art form within Rome so one of the important things is how do I know how to be a Roman one of the things they did was you went to a citizenship class you learned basic Roman etiquette you learned who is a senator and how do you know you learned who is who in the army and how do you know so as a Gaul as this wild-eyed you know dread wearing fur bound Gaul you didn't know who the Romans were or how to eat or how to act in public how do you act in a Roman Baths where's the appropriate place that you're supposed to go where's the opponent area where do I change dude where do I change my clothes and what is it for and how does a bath work look it's not just about hygiene it's about civilization and civilizing you so one of the things that happened is you would move from being chosen to being adopted to given an inheritance and then you go through a citizenship class now the next thing that would happen if I was a Gaul was I would probably have to to learn some of the specifics of the society and I'm thinking here about in chapter 3 verse 15 listen to these words it says verse 14 for this reason I bow my knees before the father for from whom every famine family in heaven and on earth derives its name that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner man the point is that whenever you went through your citizenship class you got to the end of that citizenship class and what did you do you got something called the in' statement of powers the in statement powers just means this I am now fully a Roman citizen we do this in America as well people will you know pledge allegiance to the flag they'll take their little test and they'll be sworn in as citizens well the the statement of powers is that you have now become part of the Roman family and one of the things I think that he's arguing in chapter 3 verse 15 is that you have been instated with powers that is that you as a believer have come into the place where you are part of not just the families of the earth you are now a Roman you are part of the Roman family and you will be strengthened to be a part of the Roman family all I'm saying is that's a physical image and this appears to be the pattern that he's following in the book now what's in what's important is at that point you should know who you are so chapters 1 2 & 3 address spiritually speaking who are you you're a person who's been chosen who's been adopted who's been given an inheritance who's gone through a citizenship class who has been empowered to be a citizen spiritually speaking let's apply that you are a person who God chose before the foundation of the earth you were adopted by him and by the way under Roman law adopted sons had preference over natural born size adopted sons rose to the top that's why when Caesar Augustus was adopted by Julius Caesar he becomes the heir the adoption goes to puts you first so quite literally by using adoption language Paul is saying something incredibly important about these Gentiles that were grafted into the gospel and grafted into the kingdom and adopted by Jesus Christ what I want you to understand is this your call as a believer if you did not come from a Jewish background was you were chosen by God he adopted you he gave you an inheritance and then he puts you in a city ship class to learn how to grow up gave you the token of his spirit and that belongs to you and now you have been stated with powers of the Spirit of God and that is what your ball is very important for us spiritually to understand something your identity has everything to do with how you behave my father used to say you're a Smith other people can you can they can quit you can't you're Smith your identity has everything to do with how you act when you understand who you are what when you go overseas in a few weeks I'm going to ask you not to look like loud obnoxious Americans you will see a lot of noxious Americans I'd like you to not be them it's amazing to me that I can be in a city anywhere around the world and I can spot the Americans I'm just telling you that's the truth and I'm hoping you'll blend okay and we'll talk more about that but the important thing here is that your call is your identity and understanding your call routes your identity and I want you to act the way you act because you are who you are by the way you can't act into being who you are you act because of who you are so chapter four one two six nine moves to the second box and in the second box the issue is not your just your call but your conduct would you take a moment and Mark in your Bible a couple of words I want you to see in chapter four verse one I want you to circle the word walk and underline the word worthy and then if you keep going go down to verse 17 of chapter four and I want you to circle the word walk and this one's a little bit harder to do because what I'm trying to do he gives you the negative walk no longer as Gentiles in the futility of their minds I want you to simply make in parentheses the word wisely to walk wisely that is don't walk senselessly but walk easily then I want you to see that there's yet another one go all the way to chapter five verse two circle the word walk and this time underline in love and then chapter five verse eight circle the word walk and underline as children of light and then in verse fifteen circle the word walk and then underline as wise and what you're going to see is that you were called to walk worthy in for one to walk distinctly in verse 17 of chapter four to walk in love in chat verse 2 of chapter five to walk as children of light in chapter five verse 8 and to walk wisely in chapter five verse 15 walk walk walk walk walk in other words you need to learn how to walk and the point of the conduct section is this if a goal was going to be made into a roman one of the things he had to be taught was how to walk like a Roman how to act like a Roman how to buy and sell like a Roman what are Roman laws what is Roman decency what is Roman behavior what is a Roman family what is a roman banquet how does one behave as a Roman in public what is Roman modesty or a modesty what his room and worship and what's appropriate for that so Paul sitting there in a room writing the to the Ephesians us next to a guy who maybe used to be a Gaul and he's complaining about being a second-class citizen and one of the things he had to do to get the Roman uniform that he has right now is he had to be he had to be a chosen they had to be adopted he had to get his token of inheritance he had to go through the civilization class he had to become stated as powers and then he had to learn through that class how to walk how to get a in Roman society because there was a huge difference between the the Cardo a deca - system of these you know these four quadrants of a Roman city and where he used to live running around the woods in France or Germany there was a huge difference between the way somebody got cleaned in a river up in Germany and the way they got clean in a Roman Baths and he had to learn what civilization was look the conduct of the believer comes on top of the call of the believer because when you are called you change the way you are so spiritually speaking one of the things you had to do was you had to learn how to walk now what's interesting to me is that verse 1 of chapter 4 in the beginning of that section says you've been given an identity I need you to walk like you're in that identity walk worthy of that identity now you need to understand that the scriptures are not trying to say to you that you somehow earned the position God gave you but but they are trying to say that because you have that position you ought to walk a certain way let me say it this way if you're a believer I ought to be able to tell if you're a believer your lifestyle should show it and so he says I want you to do that and what's the key issue in the first 10 or 12 verses of chapter 4 they want you to walk worthy of how do you show it you preserve the oneness the unity of the body one of the things that you had to learn as a Roman citizen is that Rome rules the world and we are one and one of the things you have to learn as a believer is that there's a circle there's us in them and the US is the believer and the them is everyone else and our objective is to try and draw them into being us just as we were drawn in one time just as we once were at enmity now we're to be drawn in it's interesting because in chapter 4 verse 17 the second those walks was this whole distinct walk no longer as the Gentiles walk in the emptiness of their minds verse 19 given over to sensuality you didn't learn Christ in that way verse 20 lay aside the old self verse 20 to be renewed in your spirit put on the new self verse 24 he's trying to say there's a distinctiveness about the way you carry yourself in sensuality and in purposefulness it is fine that unbelievers live a non purposed life it is not fine that believers living on purpose life and finally you get down to by the way one of the ways you have to do that is if you're a thief quit if you've been raging an anger stop get a job look at verse 29 a chapter for don't let any unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth but edify with what you say don't grieve the spirit of God let bitterness wrath anger clamor slander be put away malice put away be kind to one another the issue is this if you're going to be a believer you're called to act distinctly as a believer in your sensuality and in your purposefulness and in the way that you handle one another put off that other stuff it belongs to another life you don't belong there anymore well in the same way he goes on and says that were to walk in love just like Christ did that impurity and immorality those things belong to another life we're not to be partakers with them but were to walk in love but he says not in lust in love not in what the world calls love in every popular song but real love were to walk in that and then he goes on to chapter five verse eight and says stop walking like you're stumbling around in the dark walk as children of light I love I love verse 10 chapter five verse 10 that part of my life is trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord in other words when I first start I don't know what makes God happy but I I go on this journey to learn what makes God happy and the important thing is that in order to do that I have to walk wisely in verse 15 making the most of my time discerning the will of the Lord and that won't be discerned by anesthetized myself into drunkenness that will be discerned by being sensitive to his spirit and being subject to one another in verse 21 and then he goes on and talks about that subjection all right what's important for our imagery is simply this after all of this happens one of the things that I have to learn is how to be a Roman as a goal how do I learn that well probably the best way I learn it is what chapter 5 verse 1 says imitation did you ever go to one of those banquets when I first went on my first cruise ship they had so many pieces of silverware or cutlery I had no idea what I was supposed to use to eat what so here's what I did I watched people that had been there before if you don't know what to do just kind of sit there and talk and just keep your eyes out oh that's the fork you use for that you have these little things to get these little snails out of the shells I never saw these things before this is weird instrument I thought they were gonna do surgery on each other at the table they had this like they bring out this the big long thing like you know a guy's gonna come out and say you know scalpel you know it's like you don't know what this stuff is for and here's the important thing what was exciting for me was if I watched somebody else I could do this without looking like an idiot okay well chapter 5 verse 1 says listen the imitators of God as beloved children but I think one of the things that you have to learn is after you've been given a statement of powers you don't know how to act yet so watch what others are doing and then he goes on and he talks about that imitation by the way we ended our little talk there with the submission that comes as a result of understanding the promotion of unity and the distinctive wise way of walking can I just remind you that one of the important things you learned as a Roman was who's ranking was what do you see the words in chapter 5 verse 22 wives be subject to your own husband's as to the Lord the word be subject literally means to deliberately rank myself beneath another now I'm not going off on men and women right now I'm just trying to get you to understand something it doesn't say wives recognized he's a better person than you he may not be for many of you ladies may I just say this you're probably smarter than the guy you're going to marry you will probably figure out that you're going to be married before he figures out if he likes you in my experience that is the way it works you will meet him and go yep that's my guy and he's like oh she's pretty she smells good now we're not all adults but we're just not nearly as sharp as you my point is that what you do ladies is not determined that you're not worth as much as him we've already said that that you're of inestimable worth before God it's that you deliberately look at the relationship and deliberately place yourself beneath by the way no one can make you you have to decide that well one of the things you have to learn if you became a Roman from the outside world was how to place yourself in rank beneath another how to make the choice even though you may be smarter than him he's wearing the toga that says he senator so Bhau that's just what you do and my point is that this whole book seems to be laid over a set of problems that were very familiar to the people who were living at that time I I want to move to the last one just so we get done this you know probably the most actively discussed part of the book of Ephesians is verses sick verses 10 through 20 of chapter 6 and the reason that it is so actively known is because it directly engages the spiritual battle but I want to go back to my illustration first if I was a Gaul and I was sworn in and given a statement of powers and I have learned how to behave myself I could then be enlisted at the rank of what I had had taken from me so if I was a captain among the Gauls I could quickly rise to the rank of a captain among the Romans provided I had done all of the steps necessary but one of the really important things was this the last thing they do is give you weapons they don't just the first week go oh well you used to be against us now you're with us let's give you weapons so you go through the entire adoption and inheritance process before you get your weaponry now in the weaponry that's here you see that not all the weapons are listed here the Romans were incredible about borrowing technology one of the things that Long's did was franchise another one was it borrow somebody else's technology do it a little better make it a little cheaper make it work just a little bit better than they did and then send it out and say it's Roman and one of the things that for instance the Gladius the sword the broadsword that they the Gladius actually is Spanish and that's why it's called Gladius espheni Ensis it's the Spanish sword so most soldiers were issued something that was a Gladius which was a sword that was something that came from the Spanish world the helmets came from the Etruscans that they had defeated way back and the beginnings of the foundation of Rome between the 700s BC and the 500s BC so you have these very internal acts actually much of the Etruscans lasted all the way up till just before let's say 200 BC the important thing is this they borrowed all the pieces of their armor now let's think about that armor for just a minute before we close off our introduction of the book we're gonna come back and study all of it every day what were the pieces of the armor the first one was what the first one is a belt and the belt had a unique feature can anyone tell me what the unique feature of the belt was well now we're we're certainly hopeful that the belt in some way held up something because we like that but actually the most important thing was that it girded your loins and it's interesting because the belt that girded your loins had a point to it I'm not using that poetically I mean it had a point to it there was a belt with a shield see the tiniest girl in this room could take down a Roman soldier with one swift kick now that's really embarrassing you send out these guys who big muscley Roman soldiers with their peel them and their shield and they march and some little kid comes up and a down he goes okay this is not good so the very first thing they need is protection to the most sensitive area on their body and here it's called a ley Thea truth but I want you to put it in the active form the belt of truthfulness because the most vulnerable part of a Christian is their truthfulness how many times do you have to be reminded that you can lie to yourself so easily you can come to believe the lie you told yourself did you ever tell a story so many times that when your sister comes and says that's not how it happened you go but that's how I remember it you've been telling the story so often that you have come to the inclusion that it is what you have said it is even though it isn't you've lied to yourself and the lie became the truth here's what's important one of the things that they were told to put on every single day was the belt of truthfulness why because you are going to need a bell of truthfulness in order to it for you to be able to speak truth hear truth identify truth recognize truth why who is your enemy who is the enemy you're suiting up for the father of lies the deceiver so don't bother putting on all the other pieces of armor if you leave the belt off because he'll give you a swift kick and the truth and you'll go down like a ton of bricks having done all kinds of things to help you but not the things necessary that are essential in order for this to really work what I'm saying to you is this the belt of truthfulness is the first one that he gives you and it's a very very important one the second thing I want to point out to you is that there is a second piece of armor what is the second piece now this is a breastplate what does the breastplate designed to do that's at all your organs in the core of your body are being protected by a breastplate because it's fairly easy once you basically mess up somebody's heart on a battlefield they're not doing much they're laying in there and dying once you put a hole in their lung they're not running away they're not doing anything so the breastplate is to cover over the heart and to cover over the vital centers of the organs and the important thing is what is the breastplate here in the representation the breastplate of righteousness now I'm going to argue that there are some theologians that will disagree with me I don't think he's talking about the breastplate of positional righteousness I think this is something you appropriate or put on your positional righteousness was put on you you don't have anything to say about that you are righteous because jesus' is your covering is it god sees you through him this seems to me to be the breastplate of right choices meaning when you make right choices you cover your heart for the future making a right choice now puts me in the right place next for the next decision there are a lot of people who come to me and they want to know you know what's the right thing to do in this situation when they have made so many bad choices they're not even close to right and now I'm just trying to figure out what's gonna do less damage the the problem is each one of those decisions that you make improperly makes a wrong turn and after 27 of them you're in the wrong City the reason you're not making the right choice isn't that you don't want to it's that none of the choices around you are even in the right town you can be so far off track person comes to me and they're in their third marriage with with children from three different men and dated and she says to me what's the right thing to do well the right thing that corner was way back there now we're just trying to figure out what's going to be closest to biblical principles to do the least damage does that make sense breastplate of right choices means when I make right choices on protecting my heart and protecting my future and it's helping me so I'm asking God first of all deal with the sensitivity that I have to deception and truth and help me to see truth speak truth identify truth walk in truth and then I put on this breastplate of right choices because I need protection over my heart because if I allow my heart to slip look adultery occurs in their head before the bed every single time if I let my heart slip my hands will follow that is true and so the third one is what what I put on my feet I've got this I've got this very interesting problem with my feet I have my feet and they're shod Hoopoe day oh they are they're bound under with something they are bound under with the gospel the gossip that a sandal that was given to a Roman soldier was banned over but when he went out into muddy frontiers he put something and bound it under and that those are cleats that are attached to the bottom of the sandal you don't wear cleats every day you don't wear them in the kitchen clock like this is for the purpose of going into bed and so because we know that we're in a battle we we a fix our cleats but what are those cleats again you can read it passively the gospel but that's not what I think he's saying I think what he's saying is your identity in the gospel my argument would be if I'm to put it on that means it's something I do and if I do what part do I do of the gospel well I didn't save myself I only surrendered myself and in doing that surrender I put on and remind myself that I am who God says I am not who my mama says I am not who my boss who's angry at me says I am I am who God says I am interestingly enough he says I want you to watch out for truth watch out for right choices stand in your identity now if you drop your eyes down to verse 16 in the very beginning it says in verse 16 in it says in addition to all the interesting thing is if I were going to take apart that phrase I probably wouldn't say it that way I would say that I would probably say when necessary I would probably use it in a very different way much of the words of it it's actually only a simple word for all but the the idea behind it seems to be that there are times when you're going right into the direct line about when you're going into the direct line of battle what do you do why do I by the way say the shield of faith is not something you put on every day because shields are not things you carry everywhere this is not something you use in a non battle situation and the shield itself is a blocking shield it's a Thor on the Thor on is about I'm gonna say it's about this wide and it's about this tall from the floor it's maybe four feet by a foot and a half Thor ons are those funny red shields that they would carry into battle and the important thing for you to understand is it's generally it's leather overtop of wood and it usually has a brass insignia in the center which is made to help knock people down or push them over and there's a rim on the bottom that usually has a metal tip so that you can literally pick it up and break the legs at the shins of the people coming towards you but the blocking shield isn't supposed to be I mean you use it to block and push but it's not generally used one on one when you see the technique used by the Romans usually what you do is wrap your arms together through shields and there's a row or a blocking wall of shields and usually the captain has a whistle and he's using a whistle he's got a plume on his head so you know who you're taking leadership directions from and they march forward but they hold the line Romans normally allowed the attackers to come right up to the line they usually let them come right to them and then they cut through them they did not run after them they position their shields in other words our battle is primarily a defensive strategy not an offensive one we go out into the world and our very message offends them but the idea is if we're going to go out looking for a fight the fights come in you're not going to be able to avoid the fight and when it does lock arms with one another in other words when necessary standing in my cleats with my breastplate of right choices and my belt of truthfulness when it's necessary when the attack comes find a friend and hide behind the shields together pull it together get the blocking shields and the strongest believers out front and when they come use them as a buttress to push against them and use it as a place to hide so when they fire the arrows down on them there'll be two kinds of shields those blocking thoron shields in the front and there'll be some that are like tortoise shells testudo and you'll raise them up above your head so that the arrows glance off and don't take you from it from the top and this one says when under attack get behind the shields grab some friends and then keep an eye on the helmet of salvation not every soldier had the same kind of helmet the helmet that was of the leader was with a plume on top and that plume turned and had different colors in it the only way you can tell where your leader is is to keep her eyes on the plume I mean the battle is not exactly organized these guys are coming at you these guys are being flung over top of the thurid shields and the guys behind him in the second and third row are killing him there's all this stuff going on and I'm watching listening for the whistle blow and watching for the plumage on the head of my leader the helmet of salvation does a couple of things number one somebody once said you keep your helmet on because it keeps your head from swell right in your in your helmet you got to remember your head can't get any bigger and in your salvation you got to remember that you came to this with absolutely nothing to bring to God and him everything to bring to you but in addition to that the plumage on that helmet actually gives direction and it actually protects you from anything that's coming up towards your head one of the other things is that I'm supposed to have the protection of a transformed mind the part of Romans chapter 12 verse 2 is that I'm to go through the renewing of my mind and that that has to happen not to be pressed into the mold of the world but to be transformed by the renewing of my mind and that's it that would be a head image as well now let's just say the line breaks and they start to get through and they're coming down on top of us you cannot pull out your broad sword and wield it you start swinging a sword and you're gonna kill three of your buddies just trying to get one of the enemy okay the last thing you want to do is be standing next to guys who are flipping swords around okay somebody's gonna really get hurt so what do you do if you can't use a broadsword in close combat and the line is broken on the inside of your leg there is a small leather strap and this is not the rhomphaia the broadsword this is this small Mahara Emira is a dagger and it goes here so that we're in this in the text the sword of the Spirit is not a sword it's a dagger so when the line breaks and they're coming down on top of you you pull out the dagger and you stick it in the enemy because that's what you have what is that it is the Rhema of God it's not the logos it's the rain now what's the difference well the Rhema of God is a specific word so let me say it this way in very practical terms if the line breaks and the enemy's coming in the word that you have stored up in your heart the Word of God that you have learned will become the tool of defeat Jesus didn't do a study exam the day before he met the enemy in the wilderness in Matthew 4 but he answered him with the Word of God repeatedly how did he do that because when he wasn't under attack he learned the Word of God same as you're supposed to do when you're not under attack learn it memorize it make it a part of your life and hopefully your journey this year will mean that you'll have more daggers at your disposal when the enemy comes in at you and you'll be able to say wait a minute did not God's Word say you're not getting away with that you're not bending me this way because I already know what God's Word says and then you'll grab your little diploma and hold it up no you know what I'm saying and then it says all the time all the time the battle has something going on behind it and that's the prayer pray praying always at all times in the spirit beyond the alert there are always people watching the flanks there are always people watching for the enemies next move and the whole time that's going on there keeping on the alert and prayer is going up and the power of the Spirit is being called upon the resupply the Rhian courage Minh the renewing and reinvigorating of the troops all right do you understand the imagery that you call the belief of the conduct of the believer and finally the conflict of the believer which really has to do with when one becomes a Roman soldier they're dispatched certain things now he never mentions the p.m. it's the most important piece of it's like a harpoon it's a very important piece that's just not part of the imagery he's going for he selects out of the armor pieces that help teach a spiritual understanding and he selects out of the process of romanization of a an uncivilized person into Rome the pieces that help his story but I happen to think there's a connection between the two and I would just invite you to kick that connection around and see what it does don't lose heart I'm coming back for you I went away to find the place Patel and I'm coming I'm coming soon so leave the light on if you're ready to

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Length: 57min 36sec (3456 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 12 2013