Title Spiritual Soldier (Ephesians 6:16)
The Epistle to Ephesians is a letter the Apostle Paul sent from prison in Rome to protect the Ephesians from the devil and to raise them up as victorious soldiers. To understand these words, we need to establish a relationship between the church and the world. The church is an institution of salvation established in the world by buying it with the blood of the Son, and the world is still full of sinners who need to be saved, so it is a place that needs the help of the church. Therefore, no matter how comfortable the world is with the development of civilization and the world becoming one and a welfare society, if the world still does not receive the gospel from the church, they are bound to be judged by God. No matter how the times change, just as the way to save the world is the same, the purpose for which God established the church is the same in the past and today. But the problem is that there are forces that want to destroy the church and there are forces that go against God's will to save the world. They are the devil.
I pray for the comfort of the Lord to all those who have unexpected difficulties. All of these phenomena are a sign of the nearness of the day when famine and riots are on the rise, so I hope it will be an opportunity to look back on your faith even more.
We cannot help but feel that we are soldiers on a battlefield with tensions and horrors, without being content with the joy of salvation just like those who have been saved. If you are not fighting, if the world is good, money is good, comfort is good, it is okay to sin, if you do not have to worry about reading the Bible and it is okay not to evangelize, then you are already defeated. It is only natural for children of God to go to war. what war is it?
Ephesians 6:12 “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and against the rulers of this darkness, and against the spirits of evil in the heavens.”
We are now in the middle of a bloody battle ??? 8???He has called us to the battlefield ready to die with the forces of evil spirits dedicated to the kingdom. This war is not a sentimental play like a movie or a drama. In extreme circumstances, it is a life-and-death battle between heaven and hell, where faith is bankrupt. That is why the text commands you to be strong. Who is ordered in today's life-and-death war? You are the one who was commanded to fight the devil like that. You are us who have been saved today, just as you are the saved Ephesians. These words also show that the saved can become weak. Even though we are saved, living in this world without change is in accordance with God's providence to save the world. Now, inevitably, we must wage a spiritual battle between the devil, who is trying to drag the world to hell, and us, who are trying to save it. The only outcome of this war is whether to win or surrender.
The way to victory over the devil is to take up the cross and go down a narrow road until the moment you enter the kingdom of heaven, but the way to surrender is the way of peace where you can enjoy comfort and pleasure in this world. But a temporary peace will soon come to the eternal lake of fire. The true meaning of today's text is that we will not be deceived by the world's temporary comforts and pleasures and the lusts of the flesh, but we will fight the devil for the eternal kingdom of heaven.
Look back at the history of 6.25. Before the war, the difference in status between yangban and sangnom made this society hierarchical, and dissatisfaction between the powerful and the powerless in the Japanese colonial era reached its peak. In the meantime, dissatisfaction between the haves and the have-nots How great was the bitterness between the landlord and the poor peasants? At that time, how ideal was the communist party that shouted peace with the slogans of equality, welfare, paradise on earth, and people's liberation? So many people surrendered to the ideology of the Communist Party, and for some time it seemed that the world was truly equal and a paradise. But all those ideologies were false. Soon after, the Communist Party committed a brutal massacre on this peninsula. Just as we must not be deceived by the false peace of the Communist Party, soldiers who are saved today must not be deceived by the false peace of the devil.
Today, the devil tempts the members to refrain from using the primary color words because the church members hate it and the church does not revive. We must never surrender to the spiritual warfare with the devil who is persistently challenging us. So we have to be strong.
1 John 3:8 "He who sins is of the devil, and the devil sins from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil."
Today, we must gather as strong soldiers under the banner of the cross of the commander of Jesus Christ, who took the lead in destroying the works of the devil.
The devil's crafty strategy approaches the saved in this way. "Aren't you sure of your salvation now? So, it's okay to miss at least one worship service this week." Because there shouldn't be any gaps. If you are truly saved, you must absolutely attend worship services except for public affairs.
The secret to becoming a strong soldier must be the three beats of a solid soldier's mentality, powerful weapons, and training. Today the Lord trains Christians through the church. The church is a training camp sent from heaven. Through worship, you can look back on your life for a week and heal the wounds of war. Through worship, we once again have the assurance of salvation and receive the strong mental power of a martyr. Through worship, you will receive a full shield of faith that can defend against enemy attacks. We are armed with the weapon of the Word that can defeat the devil through worship. Those who are saved must grow into spiritual soldiers who will defeat the devil through worship.
The second secret to becoming a spiritual soldier is to be armed with the power of his might in the Lord.
The way to overcome the devil's challenge is to become strong enough to defeat the devil. However, the Bible says that that strength is not the strength of men, but the strength and power of the Lord. We must have sober wisdom here. This is because the churches in capitalism, without realizing it, rely on the power and power of money. Even the church is being evaluated by the worldly standards that are evaluated in money. If you build a magnificent chapel with money, it itself represents the truth. If you do a lot of good work with money, you represent all the truth through your merits.
Powerful People Who are the powerful people today? In this world, wealth, power, knowledge, and honor are also quite sad. So people try to have it. However, in fighting the devil in today's text, we emphasize that we have no interest in the power and power of the world, but only the power and power of Jesus Christ. For what? Do you believe that our fight is a spiritual warfare against the devil, not the world, so there is no other way than the power of the Lord who has overcome the devil?
What is the strength and power of the Lord?
Why is it urging us who have already been saved to become stronger spiritual soldiers? This is because the world wants us to desert the army and become friends with it. This is because the world always tempts us with sin so that we cannot focus on spiritual warfare. This is because the devil prevents us from witnessing the cross, Jesus Christ, judgment, heaven, and hell until they die. The devil neither sleeps nor sleeps. There is no way for saved children to escape the spiritual battle with the devil. There is no other way for us than victory. Now we must defeat the devil's tricks and carry out the mission of those who are saved. When demons come to us with money, fame, power, and pleasure, we must break through with the gospel of the cross.
Go to a church that proclaims the medicine of the gospel in order to heal the wounds you received on the battlefield against the devil called the world. If you fall into the temptations of the devil and choose a church where world blessings are the mainstream, the devil likes you and will hold a feast in hell.
The soldiers of Christ who will go out into the world to fight the devil must attend the worship service diligently in order to be armed with the word of the Gospel, which is a spiritual weapon. Be very careful not to fall into the devil's trap of once in a while.
If he accepts it once, he is a degenerate of faith who depends on the power of man, not the power of the Lord.
I pray in the name of Jesus that you will become a member of Dasarang Church who will win in the world and safely enter the kingdom of heaven by holding on to the cross to the end in today's world where the devil is ruling, and by enduring the training of the church well.