The Right to Bear Arms

Thanks, Carolyn. That was really beautiful. It's nice to hear a strong, alto voice, isn't it? Very nice. Beautiful background as well. We appreciate that. Wonderful message. You may have heard the story about the lady who was surprised one late night in her kitchen. There was a burglar that just showed up, and he was all loaded down, ready to run out the door. She didn't have a weapon. She was just shocked that this burglar was right there in the middle of her kitchen with all her things. And she didn't know what to do. All she could think to do was to yell out a scripture. So she just yelled out, Acts 2.38. And she felt really stupid, and she was repentant to be baptized. That was really dumb. But the burglar just froze right there. Just froze. So she was able to call 911 as he was just frozen there. The police showed up, grabbed the guy, took him to jail, and they said, well, how in the world were you able to catch this guy? Well, she said, I just said a scripture. Now the burglar heard that and said, a scripture? What do you mean a scripture? I thought she said she had an axe in 2.38s. Well, it seems the biggest story this week in the news is gun control. Your guns seem to be on everybody's mind. And this week the president announced that he was going to do all kinds of different things to help regulate guns. It's said to be some of the most sweeping reforms in policy in more than a generation. So as you may know, he's given 23 executive orders that help control guns, background checks. Those things are going to be expanded. Assault weapons are going to try to close all the loopholes so people cannot purchase them. In fact, there's even some controls that people are calling bullet controls so that you can't buy bullets or buy the magazines that would hold more than 10 rounds. No more armor piercing bullets. They want to hire more police. All kinds of other policies that the president would like to initiate. Of course, one of the interesting things with that is that the cost involved to the government to do some of these things, they're already estimating to be about $500 million. And so the White House has called on Congress to enact stricter gun control laws and legislation. And so it doesn't take much to look around to realize there's a big division in our country today. People have so many different opinions on these things. Some are saying, we have our Second Amendment rights. We have the right to bear arms. We, as Americans, were given that right right in the very Constitution. So with that on our mind, where do you stand?

Where do you stand when it comes to arms? Do you have the right to bear arms? Well, before you answer the question, maybe we should step back for just a moment and think. Maybe the answer to the question should start, it depends what you mean. Depends what you mean. If we begin to think about it on a little bit different level than what we've heard in the news, I can't help but think of 2 Corinthians 10. And verse 3, if you'd like to turn over there with me, 2 Corinthians 10. Verse 3, the apostle Paul talked about bearing arms, but he shows us that there is a different perspective than the perspective that we've seen in the news all this week. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3, the apostle Paul said, though we walk in the flesh, we don't war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare, the arms that we bear, he says, are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, for casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

Now, the Philipps version says it a little bit differently. If you go back to verse 3, here's what Philip says. He says the truth is that the course that we lead, normal human lives, the battle we're fighting is on a spiritual level. He said the very weapons we use are not those of human warfare, but powerful in God's warfare, for the destruction of the enemy's strongholds. He went on in verse 5, the battle is to bring down every deceptive fantasy and every imposing defense that men erect against the true knowledge of God. And he concluded, verse 5, by saying, we even fight to capture every thought until it acknowledges the authority of Christ. So when you talk about the right to bear arms, for us as Christians, I guess you could say it's more than a right, we're commanded to bear spiritual arms, to engage in spiritual warfare. We're told to take the sword of the Spirit, the shield of faith, because we're not fighting a physical battle, are we? We are fighting a spiritual battle. It's supposed to pull down these strongholds, things that would stand up against God in our life, in what we do, in what we say, and how we think. We're to bring down those evil things in the spiritual realm that fight against Christ-like thinking. And so these things are described as principalities and powers and demonic forces and the rulers of darkness. That's the battle that we're really fighting. It's not a battle that's being fought in Congress, but boy, it reminds us of the spiritual side of things. And of course, there are some amazing lessons in the Bible that really bring that point home. If you were to turn to the Old Testament, it's full of physical battles. In fact, you could probably hardly turn open the Old Testament and not find you're in the middle of a battle somewhere, because there are so many of them that happen throughout the Old Testament. Now, we're told that these things that are written are so that we can learn, so that we can take these examples and we can understand spiritual truth from the things that are recorded for us in the Bible. Now, when you turn back to the Old Testament, there's an interesting example that ties in with this idea of bearing arms. In fact, it points to an individual who had special responsibilities, especially in battle, when it came to the fight. And there is no doubt that this individual had the right to bear arms.

Now, who was that? The armor bearer. That's right. The armor bearer. In fact, there's several of them mentioned in the Old Testament. You can find five of them mentioned specifically. Jonathan had an armor bearer. Abimelech had an armor bearer. Saul had two of them. One of them was the one that would become King David. Even Goliath had an armor bearer. We won't talk about Goliath at all today. But it's interesting that as we begin to think about this idea of bearing arms, are there spiritual lessons that we can learn from the Old Testament armor bearer? The short answer is, yeah, there are. Yes, there are. Let's think about that for a little bit. Even just beginning with the term armor bearer. Do you know what that was originally translated from?

A word in Hebrew that is nasa, N-A-S-A, nasa. And it literally means to lift up or support or help. The armor bearer was to be the helper, and most oftentimes to a king. Now, the first one I'd like to take a look at is found over in Judges 9. Judges 9, verse 50, is where we'll begin. And this is the story of Abimelech's armor bearer. Abimelech's armor bearer. Abimelech was an interesting character. He was actually the son of Gideon. You've heard about, read about the judge Gideon. Well, this is one of Gideon's sons, and he wanted to be king. He wanted to be king over the tribe of Manasseh. He wanted to be king over Shechem, not necessarily all of Israel, but he had his sights set on a smaller goal to begin with. And this guy was evil. He was actually killed 70 of his brothers to get them out of the way because people had focused on Gideon. Well, he wants all the focus on him. This guy was an evil, evil man. There's nothing good about the lessons of his life, except when we get a little bit more understanding about his armor bearer. And as we look at Judges 9, verse 50 starts the story here about the situation with Abimelech and his armor bearer. Let's read just a little bit of that. In verse 50 of chapter 9, we see Abimelech has pushed his enemies into the corner. It says, Abimelech went to Thebes, and he encamped against Thebes and took it. So he's fighting, striving to be king, trying to be ruler, pushing his enemies out of the way. But, verse 51, there was a strong tower in the city, and all the men and women, all the people of the city fled there and shut themselves in. Then they went to the top of the tower. Ah ha! He's got them. They are cornered. Where are they going to go now? He's got them trapped. There's nothing standing in the way. Except a woman. Except a woman! So it says, verse 52, Abimelech came as far as the tower, fought against it, and he drew near the door of the tower to burn it with fire. He's going to burn them out, burn it to the ground, kill all the people. But, a certain woman dropped an upper millstone on Abimelech's head and crushed his skull.

Crushed his skull. Can you imagine this? This mighty warrior walking through the door, and this woman drops this grindstone, a millstone, right on his head and cracks his skull. This is a fatal wound. There is no hope of surviving here. And so what happens? Verse 54, he calls quickly to the young man, his armor bearer. And he said to him, Draw your sword and kill me, lest men say of me, a woman killed him. So his young man thrust him through, and he died. He died. You see, Abimelech, he knew he was going to die. It would have been unbelievably just ignoble to have a woman kill a great man. So he asked his armor bearer, he doesn't want to die by the hand of a woman, looks at his armor bearer and says, Kill me! And the armor bearer did. He kills him. Now, you might say, Okay, what does that have to do with anything? Sounds kind of grotesque. Sounds kind of odd.

But as you think about the story itself, this armor bearer was with the king. He was always there. In fact, that's probably the first lesson we can think of. The armor bearer always stays close to the king, always right there at his side. He bore his sword, his shield, he was right there. His assignment was, no matter what the battle brought, no matter how difficult it was, no matter how heated the fight, that armor bearer was to be right there beside the king. Wherever he went, he was there. Couldn't leave his side. And of course, when the going is good, it's easy to stand by the king, isn't it? Boy, when it's tough, when the going gets rough, sometimes people run.

You see, I think there's a point for you and I. We go through some tough times. We go through some difficult challenges. We face battles in life. And so oftentimes they are spiritual battles.

Who do we stay close to in those times? Who do we stay close to? Yeah, we've got to stay close to Christ and to God the Father when it's good. And when it's bad, we've got to stay just as close to our king, to our master. Because you know what? He's not going to leave us. He's not going to leave us when things are good. He's not going to leave us when things are difficult. We've got to stay close to God. It should draw us that much closer, even when things are difficult, to accomplish the purposes of God, to really ultimately win the battle. Don't we have to stay close to our king? I think that's a powerful lesson that we can learn from the armor bearer. He was right there, no matter what had happened. Even if it was a door that got in the way, he was right there. It's also interesting that because of the tradition of the times, the armor bearer was going to defend the king's honor. I think that's an important lesson as well, second lesson. The king's honor was that armor bearer's concern. You see here, the Abimelech had said, thrust me through, kill me, because it's a dishonor to die, not by the hands of a mighty war, but by a woman. Think about that for us.

Who wants to dishonor our king? Satan wants to dishonor God. He wants to dishonor God's plan. He wants to dishonor us. He wants our life to show battle plans of cowards. He wants us to run when we are faced with spiritual challenges. He wants us to cower when it comes to overcoming. He wants us to fear when it comes to growing in grace and knowledge. He doesn't want us to set goals, achieve goals, and overcome and exhibit the fruit of the spirit. You see, that's the battle we're in. We're facing the battles against spiritual wickedness. Satan does not want us to grow. He doesn't want us to be patient. He doesn't want us to be kind. He doesn't want us to be loyal to God. So, his honor must be reflected in what we do, the honor that God deserves. So, our king deserves our honor. Is that our greatest concern? That our life is a representation and an honor to God. It needs to be. It needs to be. Satan is going to try everything and anything to influence us, to hinder us, to dishonor God, and look at our lives. Are our lives a representation that brings honor to our king? It's an important question that we need to ask ourselves.

And what areas of my life really don't bring honor to God? Are those areas that I need to step up, the fight, that I need to submit to my king and take on those spiritual weapons so I can more effectively bring him honor, show him honor, exhibit the honor that the ultimate king deserves? Absolutely. Now, it is interesting, back in the book of Mark, Mark 6, verse 4, that this idea of honor comes into play in the concept of overcoming and doing good works. Bringing honor to God, we find the story of Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus Christ was not always honored. And one of the places that He was dishonored was in His own hometown. It was in His very own hometown. And in Mark 6, verse 4, Jesus was talking about how even in His own hometown, He could not do any mighty work, except maybe just heal a couple of people. You see, the ultimate works that should have been done, that could have been done, the gospel being preached, lives being changed, that could have happened there, that the work of Satan could have been overcome, didn't happen. And when you look at why it didn't happen, it comes back to honor. It comes back to honor. Verse 4, Christ says, a prophet is not without honor except in his own hometown, among his own house, among his own kin. You see, the people dishonored Christ, and it hindered the power of God to serve them, to help them. You see, Satan won that battle in Christ's hometown because people didn't honor the king. And ultimately, if we don't honor the king, how can we be blessed? How can he help us to overcome? You know, Satan's task is to harm us, to hurt the people of God, to bring us down spiritually. And so I think we should step back and ask ourselves, are we the kind of person, the kind of armor bearer that brings honor to the leader of our church? And of course, that's Jesus Christ, isn't it? That's Jesus Christ. Do we honor authority that's over us? Because we have to honor authority as we honor our leaders as they follow Christ, because dishonor and lack of submission is not good. It's not a godly trade, is it? Because ultimately then, we dishonor God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Now, a few pages over in 1 Timothy chapter 1, this concept of honoring the king being a primary concern of every one of us is brought out as Paul writes the young minister, Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 17. 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 17. Paul frames it with the ultimate king in mind. Notice how he writes this here to Timothy. 1 Timothy 1, 17. He says, Now to the king, eternal. You see, as God's armor bearers, we are bearing Christ up. We are holding Him up. We are lifting Him up. We are supporting Him. We are showing His presence in our life. And so he says, To the king, eternal, immortal, invisible, to God alone who is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Now that's a given fact. That is absolutely going to happen. No matter what, God the Father and Jesus Christ will be honored. Now the question is, is that honor going to take place in our life? Are we going to be a part of those that bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ? Verse 18 says, This charge I commit you, Son Timothy. I am commanding you. Paul is giving Timothy an order. He's giving us an order by extension. He says, According to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected. So we put into practice this faith that brings honor to God. We reject, not God, but we reject Satan. We reject the influence of his minions. We reject that spiritual wickedness that is constantly working against us. And we make it our concern that in every aspect of our life, we're going to make sure we're bringing honor to God.

Now there's another armor bearer back in the Old Testament. If you turn to 1 Samuel, chapter 31, for our next lesson, let's look at Saul's armor bearer. Saul's armor bearer. 1 Samuel, chapter 31, right at the very beginning of that chapter is where we'll pick it up. 1 Samuel, chapter 31, of course. Saul was the very first king of Israel. David was one of his armor bearers for a while. But here we've got another armor bearer, another man that's mentioned here in 1 Samuel, chapter 31.

And in this particular section of Scripture, Saul is fighting the Philistines. They're fighting against Saul. And as we pick up the story, we see what happens to Saul, his sons, and his armor bearer as well. It says, the Philistines, verse 2, followed hard after Saul and his son. So the battle was raging. It says, the Philistines killed Jonathan. They killed Abinadab. They killed Malchusia. They killed Saul's son. It says, the battle became so fierce against Saul, the archers hit him, and he was severely wounded by the archers. Saul said to his armor bearer, Draw your sword, thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised men come and thrust me through and abuse me. Now it's interesting here that instead of doing that, this armor bearer, it says, saw Saul. This armor bearer would not. He wouldn't kill him. It says, he was greatly afraid. He was greatly afraid. Now it's interesting, this word, afraid, here, is not the word for being fearful, because an armor bearer wasn't supposed to be fearful. They were ones that are going to be in the heat of the battle. They're going to stand strong. They're going to be courageous. They're not going to be shaking in their boots when things are challenging and difficult and death is at the door. They're not going to be fearful. This word for fear, fear here, is actually the word for awe and respect. So we find that this armor bearer couldn't thrust him through because he respected him and he honored him more than carrying out that task. And so perhaps this wound that Saul had been inflicted with was not one that he was going to immediately die from. Perhaps it wasn't that at all, because if you notice what he says after he's injured, he says, lest these uncircumcised men come, thrust me through and abuse me, or come and torture me.

And of course, the Philistines were well known for their torture. They were well known for putting people and prisoners through agonizing torment. You think of an example of that?

You see, not too much longer before this, back in the Judges, Samson was one that the Philistines got a hold of. And what did they do to him?

He gouged out his eyes. They demeaned him. They turned him into nothing less than a pack horse.

Saul wasn't about to let that happen to him, so he says to his armor bearer, kill me.

He wouldn't do it. And so what happens is Saul then, it says at the end of verse 4, took a sword and fell on it. And I think it shows something very interesting about this armor bearer. This concept of honor is taken to the next level. That it's not just honor, but now this armor bearer was loyal to the end. He was loyal. He was loyal to the death. Because in fact, we see here that verse 5, when his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, what did he do? He also fell on his sword and died with him. You see, this armor bearer was showing respect. He was showing reverence to Saul. Perhaps there might be a way out. Perhaps they're not going to take you. Perhaps there's a different way. And so he respected him. He honored him. He feared him all the way to death. And it's interesting. Did he have plan B? Like maybe I can get away. Saul's dead. Now I'm out of here.

There wasn't any plan B, was there? Saul was dead. I'm as good as dead as well.

Now for us, do we kill ourselves on behalf of our king? Should we kill ourselves?

Absolutely. Are we supposed to put to death the old man? Does that exhibit our loyalty? Do we do that because we're shaking in our boots and we're fearful? No. We should take it to the next level, that we love and honor and respect and awe our awesome Savior. So much to the fact that we love God that we're willing to put our old selves to death. No plan B, is there? There's no plan B. Once we've been called to the truth and we understand that and we commit our lives to God, we are called to death. And we symbolize that at baptism, don't we? We go in that watery grave and we put that old man. There's no plan B to let him come back up. We're to keep that old man buried.

And so we've got to keep that in mind as well. We've got to continue that faith and loyalty all the way to the end. That we've killed, we've crucified the old man as the way Paul put it in Galatians 2.20, didn't he? I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Not I, but Christ lives in me, is what he says. And so how long now does he have to maintain that loyalty?

All the way till our physical death. To our physical death, we carry that on and we maintain that loyalty to our king. We bear spiritual arms to fight the foe. We grow in grace and knowledge. We put on the character of Christ and we maintain that loyalty all the way to our physical death.

And so we're not too unlike Saul's armor bearer, are we? That we maintain that love and that honor and that awe and respect to our great God who's called us. Now, it's also interesting when we see another example. We're going to backtrack just a little bit and go back to 1 Samuel 14.

1 Samuel 14, we're going to pick up a lesson from another armor bearer. This section of Scripture deals with Jonathan and his armor bearer. So we're going to backtrack. We're going to rewind the tape. If you ever watch those movies that you're seeing something happen, you've got no clue, and then the little thing comes up that says, previously or last month, and then you go back in time. We're going to go back in time for just a minute. Saul's still alive. They're still battling and they're fighting. They're always seeming to fight somebody.

And here in 1 Samuel 14, yes, the Philistines are being fought again by Saul and Jonathan as well. And so here we pick up a little bit more to the story. Some interesting connections for us today through Jonathan and his armor bearer. It begins in chapter 14. It happened one day that Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to the young man who bore his armor. Okay, his armor bearer. Come, let's go over to the Philistine garrison that's on the other side.

But he didn't tell his father. He didn't tell his father. So there's this battle going on. Jonathan, who is Saul's son, the king's son, decides, hey, while dad's back here strategizing, he's trying to come up with a plan to attack, let's go out with these guys. Let's go out and take care of these guys. Okay, so he talks to his armor bearer about it, talks to him.

And so he tells him, let's go do this. And so as we begin to see verse 4, between the passes by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistine garrison, there was a sharp rock on one side, a sharp rock on the other side. And these rocks had names.

One was Moses, the other was Senna. Some interesting stories about these rocks that come back later in history. So if you ever want an interesting kind of side light, sidebar, look up these rocks during World War I. There's an amazing story that comes into play that I'll try not to get sidetracked about. But we're given these names, and they come back later in history as well. But anyway, back to the story. Verse 6, Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, Come, let's go over to the garrison of these uncircumstised.

It says, It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing restrains the Lord from saving many, by many, or by few. All right, he can work with a giant army, but you know, God can work with us.

We're just two guys. What would the armor bearers say? You crazy? There's two of us. We're talking about a garrison. I don't think this is a good idea. Don't you want to rethink this? How about if we get a few more guys? Don't you want to bring another battalion or so with us? I think we'd have, you know, a better chance.

But what did he do? Verse 7, His armor bearers said to him, Do all that is in your heart, go then, here I am with you according to your heart. He didn't even have to stop to think about it, did he? Jonathan said, Let's go. Armor bearers says, All right, I'm right with you. You see, he obeyed immediately. He obeyed his master. That is an important lesson for us. A fourth example, Jonathan's armor bearers said, Yes, let's do it.

You do what you think is best. I'm with you completely. Whatever you decide, I'm at your side. See, Jonathan's armor bearers didn't hesitate. He didn't hesitate at all. In fact, it's interesting. Jonathan was maybe not quite sure about this. He said, All right, let's cross over verse 8, and it says, We'll show ourselves to them. They say, Let us wait here till we come to you. We'll wait and stand in our place, and we'll not go up to them. But if they say, Come to us, well, then let's go to them, for the Lord's delivered them into our hand.

So it's interesting. There really wasn't a plan ahead of time. He said, Hey, come on, let's go do this. And his armor bearers said, Yeah, let's go. How are we going to do this? Well, how about if we do this? If we call out and they call, we'll go. If not, well, then we better not. And so the story plays out. He trusts God that God can win the battle, no matter what.

He puts his reliance on God, and his armor bearer was right there with him. Obeying. He was obeying and following him. And so we see what kind of intent did this armor bearer have? What was really in his mind, in his heart, in his thinking?

You see, this guy had really the heart of a servant. He says, I am with you according to your heart. You see what was in the armor bearers heart? He was a servant. I'm going to do what you want me to do. And so he was right there with him. And you know, we're in God's army, aren't we? We are in God's army. There is authority in our life. We've been given marching orders, haven't we? Haven't we been given commands that we're to follow? Isn't Jesus Christ our guiding general? And so do we submit? Do we support him? Do we follow him? Or do we question?

Why? What would you want me to do that for? I'm not sure I really should. Or do we jump in there, following God's guidance, allowing him to direct our lives, and we go forward. We support his authority. We not only support it in our thinking and our words, but it comes out in what we do. It comes out in our actions. And that's the attitude of a servant. That's the attitude of a spiritual armor bearer who obeys their king. And so when you think about this armor bearer, who's going to stand between the enemy and the king? Or in this case, the enemy and his master, Jonathan. The only one that's going to be left is that armor bearer. Are we willing to risk all in order to obey God, in order to do what's right? You see, the lesson of the story begins to illustrate that so specifically. In fact, as we skip down a little bit, we see in verse 11, both of them end up showing themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. The Philistines said, look, the Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they've hidden. And so they said to Jonathan, verse 12, come up to us and we'll show you something. Not like, hey, it's show and tell time. No, that's not what they're going to show. We'll kill you. We're going to kill you. We'll show you what it's like to be a mighty warrior. We're going to teach you little punks a lesson. That's what the idea there is all about. But, verse 12, Jonathan says to his armor bearer, come up after me, for the Lord has delivered them into the hand of Israel.

The Lord's delivered them. What happens? It says, verse 13, Jonathan climbed up on his hands and knees with his armor bearer after him, and they fell before Jonathan. And as he came after him, his armor bearer killed them. And the first slaughter with Jonathan and his armor bearer made, it says, was about 20 men within a half acre of land. So they wipe out 20 of the enemies, just like that. And it's also interesting where this armor bearer was during this time. They go forward. God gave them that signal by the answer of the Philistines. They took off after them. Who was leading the way? Jonathan was leading the way. What did he tell his armor bearer? He said in verse 11, come after me. Come after me. Or, literally, come right behind me.

In other words, the armor bearer had his back. The armor bearer had his back. Right? Jonathan's leading the way, killing the Philistines right and left. Who's covering his backside? Who's behind him? Who's making sure nobody comes back around to attack? You see, that is such an amazing illustration when you think about it. You know, if we're allowing Christ to lead us, we follow right behind. And sometimes Satan does that very thing, doesn't he? He organizes his troops, maybe defeated up front, but he comes around the back. He comes from behind. He tries to get in at the back door.

And as armor bearers of God, we can't even allow that to happen. Even though we're winning the war right up front, we can't allow anything to get behind us. We can't allow an attack from behind to overtake us. We've got to protect the rear guard. We've got to overcome not only what we can plainly see, but we've got to be spiritually ready for an attack that might come from behind.

So that's an important aspect of what an armor bearer does. We protect not only ourselves, but we protect the king from rear attacks. We protect our master. And so by obedience, we follow after him. We stay close to him, and we can win. We can take down that spiritual enemy because of the awesome God that we have. We have an amazing God. We have an awesome God who loves us, who cares for us, and is leading us in battle. Are we coming right after him? I mean, if you had to map that out in your life, as we fight the spiritual battles, how close are we to the king? Are we that close that as we're fighting the battle, he hears us, and we're right there so we can hear him? He always hears us. Are we right there at his side, we're allowing him to guide us in battle, to lead us in the way to go?

See, if we are, I believe we're going to be able to overcome those back door attacks that come after us that Satan loves. He loves the sneak attack. It's going to help us stay on our guard so none of those things can happen because we are fighting that spiritual battle. Let's turn over to Ephesians 6. It's an amazing chapter that deals so much with this spiritual conflict that we're involved with.

In chapter 5, we're told about all the enemies that are out there. We're told about all the works of the flesh. We're told about adultery, and fornication, and uncleanness, and hatred, and jealousies, and wrath, all of those character traits that we are battling and we are fighting. We're also told about the weapons that we can overcome with. We can overcome, and we can put on the fruit of the Spirit, and we can win the fight because we've been called to this lifelong struggle. And in chapter 6, then, we're told that we are fighting a rough battle. It is a major conflict. It's not a minor one. It's something that as we look, we have to overcome. So in Ephesians 6, it tells us how we can do it. He says we're fighting amazing forces. Verse 12, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places.

So if we are going to overcome, if we're not going to run, if we are going to stand strong for our God, He says, be an armor bearer. Take up the whole armor of God. Take it up. Support God. Be strengthened by these things. And of course, like Jonathan, where is our power? Where is our ability to overcome? Well, verse 10 says, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, of His might. And so we take up His armor and literally we put that armor on.

So do we have the right to bear arms? Yes, absolutely. Spiritual arms, spiritual weapons. Because who are we? It's just like those armor bears in the Old Testament. These were bold, courageous individuals who their king handpicked for a special mission, to be their armor bearer. We're no less than that. God has handpicked us to stand by His side, to fight a spiritual battle. And so we are to be people of valor, people who are courageous. Because there was another name for an armor bearer in the Old Testament. You know what that name was? A shield bearer. And here in Ephesians 6, we find out about that shield bearer, that armor bearer, taking up the shield of faith and taking up the sword of the Spirit. That's the kind of armor bearer we're to be. And doing it not by our own power, but by the power of His might. That's what we're to be arming ourselves with. And that brings the kind of glory in battle to our Heavenly Father. In fact, over in 1 Peter 4, verse 1, it gives a little synopsis of the kind of battle and the kind of armor we're to wear. I think we normally think of Ephesians 6 with the armor of God. But 1 Peter may put it a little more succinctly in some ways. 1 Peter 4, and in verse 1, it gives us some guidance and gives us some direction at the very beginning of this chapter. You notice what it says here? It says, Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, it says, Arm yourselves also with the same mind. For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. So when we take up that shield, when we take up the faith of Jesus Christ, we are arming ourselves with His mind, His attitude, His way of thinking. How are we going to overcome all the challenges that we face? How are we going to grow in grace and knowledge? How are we going to build the character of Christ by taking up that spiritual armor? And the chief is the mind of Christ. Arm yourselves also with His mind so we can face the spiritual battle. We can always be with our leader. Why? Because He's right there at our side. We have His way of thinking. We do stay close to the King because we have the same mindset. We think alike. We submit ourselves to Him. And when my thinking gets off track, I'm going to pull it right back and obey Him and keep His thoughts as my thoughts. I'm going to follow Him because ultimately that's what's going to bring Him honor. And I'm going to watch out for attacks that are surprise attacks, that are going to be coming from behind. And I'm going to follow my King to the death, to my entire life.

So do we have the right to bear arms? Yeah, when we hear the arguments and the news that probably be ongoing for the next several weeks, maybe keep this in mind. Let's remember we are in a spiritual battle. Let's fight the good fight of faith and give it our all. And there's no doubt then we will win that spiritual battle.