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Eph-80-81 - Lesson 37 Pt 3 Sharing (VPW) - Athletes of The Spirit

This is a break moment between Craig Martindale teaching Athletes of The Spirit and Dr. Wierwille teaching the same subject. 

3rdburglar by Wordburglar

Do you want to stand up a minute here and reach for the heavens and breathe? Well, quite a night. [Laughter] Ha ha ha. Give you something to chew on for a day or two. Well now, I guess it' s up to me to sort of wind this thing all together here and see where we end up at. So whenever you' re able to sit down again and feel halfway comfortable .. .we will go to Ephesians six.

I do not believe there is any other Christian group in the world, basically, who believes what we believe Ephesians teaches. But there' s no other Christian group that can put the Word of God together, either. And therefore, I believe it's just an exciting moment in your life and the history of it. As Craig told you, I was working this back in 1970 already.

But like so many things that I've worked, it contradicted everything I believed and was taught previously. And you can' t go beyond what you' re taught. Like once upon a time, I believed Jesus Christ was God. I believed the holy spirit was God. God was God and all that stuff. Today, I do not believe that at all. I believe he was the Son of God.

So the same way with this whole section in Ephesians. I really never understood the greatness of it and I'm real thankful that after all these years , at least we can approximate the greatness of the truth of it. And perhaps some of you younger men and women, as you now take what we' re sharing, you carry it much further than we have been able to carry it.

One of the questions that I have asked myself regarding Ephesians 6:10 through 17, and closing it out.. .as I said tonight, it' s the apex of it all...is how does this relate itself to the one great truth that was so magnified in the fifth chapter and in the sixth through verse nine, namely the one God? And the final illustration being the family with the husband as the head of the wife. How does all of this relate itself to athletics?

I think very simply, because there is only one God to be considered, because there' s only one way to be a winner in any athletic contest, and that is to put on the mind of Christ. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual foes. And there' s only one way to be a winner and that is to put on the Word of God, for the Word of God is the Will of God. Any infraction, any minute detail off of the accuracy of God' s Word will not make you a winner. It will make you come in at second place.

So I believe the greatness of the one God is manifested here in being the winner. We are more than conquerors. We have the more than abundant life. We are super conquerors. And there is only one way to be a winner and that is, the way of the Word. As there is only one God, there is only one Son of God: one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father, see. Only one. And there' s only one way to win and that' s the way of the Word. And that is to be a great spiritual athlete for God.

In 6:10 of Ephesians, the King James reads: Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

Checking back to Ephesians 3:20, the Word of God says: Now unto him who is able to do what? [Exceeding] Exceeding abundantly. To exceed abundance above all that we ask or think. Now remember the ' all we ask or think' is conditioned by the Word that gives us the privilege to ask or think. You cannot ask or think beyond what the Word guarantees and expect to receive it, if it' s contrary to the Word.

According to the power, the dunamis, that worketh in us. According to the dunamis, the inherent power that is at work within us. To the end you operate the believing of the greatness of God' s Word in your life, you exceed abundantly. And that' s why 6:10 is so tremendous. Be strong in the Lord.
You will exceed abundantly to the end that we are strong in the Lord. The word ' finally' as I told you is ' from henceforth' or ' now therefore.'
The words ' my brethren ' do not appear in the text. You do not need them. Finally be strong in the Lord, because Ephesians is addressed to the body of believers.

This ' be strong' the, as I told you is a command of continuous action. People, it isn' t just being strong now and two minutes from now flipping out. I think I mentioned earlier tonight about somebody just running beautifully for a short period of time and then they cop out. This ' to be strong ' kids, is a command of continuous action, not continually, which would be sporadic. It' s a continuous action.
You' re always strong. You 're always right on. You ' re always right there with the Word of God.

That Greek word as I told you was spelled e-n-d-u-n-a-m-o-u -s-t-h-e here in Ephesians 6:10. It' s the word that means ' finally be strong,' ' finally,' ' finally be strong. ' The ' e-n' means ' in.'
Be strong in what? In Christ in you. Christ is in you. That' s why the ' e-n' is on that word. With that in you. And what is in you? Part of that word is dunami s, dunamis, dunamis. With that which is in you as dunamis. Dunamis is inherent. It is latent. It is potential power. It becomes kinetic when you operate it. You are hidden with Christ in you as the dunamis , the inherent power. And you have to have it continuous action. You walk in the light as he is what? [Light] The light, with the renewed mind. That is to be strong.

' You' re strong in our Lord,' it says. That' s the Aramaic.

The word ' power' is ' power with an impact.' It is ' exerted power' in which one willfully and with vigor exerts a force. You' re strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Not in the power you put on, but in the power of His might which energizes the dunamis that' s in you. And that gives you the ability to utilize that with which you' ve been clothed, called armour, effectively as well as efficaciously.

Most of the commentaries, as a matter of fact all of them that I've ever read, spend all their time on the armour and nothing about the strength of the Lord. They just seem to pass over verse ten. But that' s the whole key to this section.

' His mighty power' is ' power of His might.' It' s a figure of speech antimereia. Power of His might, which is an exchange of cases, see.

So, the literal translation of verse ten is as follows: Now therefore continue being strong in our Lord and in the exerted power of His ability for you to do. The 'for you' is in a parenthesis. Now therefore, continue being strong in our Lord and in the exerted power of His ability (for you) to do.

The expanded one of verse ten is: From now on, keep on being strong in your sold-out commitment to and in our Lord and in the willful exerted power of His might with vigor, you can do.

Verse 11 in the King James says: Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Craig did such an admirable presentation of the Old Testament as it relates itself to armament and other things, warfare, in the New Testament relationship as an athlete.

The images used by God in the Old Testament differ greatly from those used of the Christian believers after the day of Pentecost. In the Old Testament , there were servants of the Lord. In the New Testament, we are sons of God. In the Old Testament, including the Gospels, they were disciples. Today, we are the bond slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, they were soldiers. In the New, beginning with the Book of Acts, we are athletes of the spirit.

And Craig told you there are four things you have to understand: What or where the battlefield is? -
What are the weapons and the armour today?
What is the foe or the nature of the foe? And what' s the purpose of the contest?

He also told you that in the Old Testament the battlefield was a physical, geographical area. You see at times, you hear the critics take a crack at God. You know, they' re so stupid, see... about the warfare of God killing people. God wouldn' t have killed them if they' d got the hell out of the way. That ' s right. They stole the Promised Land. God had given the Promised Land... the earth is the Lord's. He can give it to whoever He wants to. Man didn' t create it. Man didn ' t make it, God did.
And so God has the right to do what He wants to with it. He gave it to Abraham, remember? With promise and all that. Well, what happened? Somebody else stole it. The Amorites, the Judites, the Jackites and all the rest of those dudes. Right. They took it while. the children of Israel were in Egypt. So, all that God wanted them to do is get back what He' d already given to them.

The enemy had stolen it. And whenever the enemy steals anything that' s the property of God, God' s people have the right to get it back. That' s Israel. Well, so don' t get shook with that stuff when they yell about it. That's why their weaponry was military: spears, swords, shields, everything they used to physically kill the enemy. Their foes were the military armies of the aliens and the purpose of the contest at that time was to win back the Promised Land.