Transcript

If you have your Bibles please turn with me to Ephesians 6.

The story is told about a teacher who injured his back and had to wear a plaster cast around the upper part of his body. It fit under his shirt and wasn’t noticeable.

On the first day of the term, still with this cast under his shirt, this teacher was assigned to the toughest students in school.

He walked confidently into that rowdy classroom, opened a window, and then got busy with his work. Soon a strong breeze made his tie flap and flop around.

So the teacher picked up the stapler from his desk and stapled his tie to his chest, and he had no trouble with discipline that term. That teacher had invisible armor, but so do we, but our armor is a whole lot stronger than that, because it is the armor of God.

We need God’s armor and protection. In v. 12 we see that our enemy is organized and structured to wage the most destructive warfare possible against the Church.

In v. 11 we learn about the devil’s “wiles,” or that he has schemes and strategies against each of us to make us fall or turn and run away in the battle and hurt our testimony.

In light of these things, Paul commands the Church that we need to promptly “put on” and “take unto” ourselves the whole armor of God in the spiritual battle.

Ephesians 6:14 says, “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.”

Paul instructs the church to “stand therefore,” or be strong, maintain your ground, don’t flee, don’t yield, don’t turn away for the cause of Christ.

As you look at the pieces of the armor, none of them are for the back. There is no protection for the back. God does not want us to turn and run in the battle. He wants us to stand in His power and for His glory.

We are instructed to stand “having your loins [or waist] girt about with truth.” Most of us today don’t “gird out loins.” Nowadays we buckle our belts around our waists. It has the same kind of meaning.

The garment of the Roman soldier draped loosely over him. A loose tunic would have been a potential hindrance and even a danger to him in battle if he got tangled up in his clothes.

So the soldier’s clothing was cinched up tight by a heavy 6-inch wide leather belt so it wouldn’t hamper his movements. The belt girded and supported him and was a mark of readiness and preparedness.

The belt is composed of truth, Paul says, or the truth of God, revealed in His Word. John 17:17 says, “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth.”

And Ephesians 4:15 teaches us that we are to be “speaking the TRUTH in love,” that is the truth of God’s Word, and the truth revealed to the Apostle Paul in the revelation of the mystery. And the TRUTH is found in Christ. Ephesians 4:21 says, “as the truth is in Jesus.” He is the Way, the TRUTH, and the life.

The truth includes the gospel. Ephesians 1:13 says, “In Whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the Word of TRUTH, the gospel of your salvation: in Whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.”

We need to hold to the truth of God’s Word, but it’s also needed for the truth to hold us, and we must apply it to our lives, and allow it to transform our lives.

Being girded with the “truth” also speaks to the truth being lived out practically. It’s the truth of character and a life that conforms to the instruction of God’s Word, and thus yields the fruit of the Spirit of truth in your life as Ephesians 5:9 says, “For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and TRUTH.”

So having our loins girt about with truth, is about knowing the Word, rightly divided, knowing Christ, being girded with the gospel, and living a life in accordance with the truth of the Word.

John 8:44 says of our enemy Satan: “…there is no truth in him…for he is a liar, and the father of it.” So you can believe in this spiritual battle that we will be confronted with lies, with false teaching and deceptive scheming to make us stumble.

We are to be people of truth, the truth of God’s Word, and His Son who is the Truth, and the truth for the Body of Christ revealed to the Apostle Paul by Christ. As we know the Truth, we will be girded for the battle.

Having a knowledge of the truth of the Word will support us, give us confidence and make us ready and prepared in this spiritual warfare.

Being girded with truth will keep us close to our Lord and make us strong in Him, and it will allow us to know good from evil and expose error and deception.

Ivan Misner tells how 3 store owners shared adjacent storefronts in the same building. Times were tough. In hopes of picking up sales, the owner of the shop at one end of the building put a sign over his front entrance that said YEAR-END CLEARANCE!

At the other end of the building, another owner responded with his own sign: ANNUAL CLOSE-OUT. The owner of the store in the middle knew he had to act fast or he’d lose business. After careful consideration, he hung a larger sign over his front door that read, MAIN ENTRANCE.

We know in the spiritual battle that there will be trickery and deception by the strategies and schemes of Satan. So we need to be on guard, and be discerning, and be people of the truth and of the Word.

But we need to remember that Satan’s attacks sometime come by way of him using Scripture. Pastor Stam said this: “In Luke 4:3,10 we read, ‘And the devil said…It is written.’ Frightening thought that should put us all on guard against his wiles.”

In the temptation of our Lord in the wilderness, Satan used Scripture. And so the devil does the same today, as he does his greatest work of deception in the churches and religions of this world, and he often does so by twisting Scripture, not taking it in its context, or not taking in its dispensational context.

And therefore we need to be girded with a strong understanding of God’s Word, rightly divided, and the revelation of the mystery as committed to the Apostle Paul, so we are not led away from Christ by unsound doctrine and error and traditionalism.

As we are Bereans and test everything by the truth of the Word, we find strength and protection in the battle.

We need the truth of doctrine, and we need the truth of a godly character to keep us from falling and so we can stand in the spiritual battle. We need that belt pulled tight, and keep the truth of God’s Word close, and keep Christ at the center of our lives, and live out and stay true to what the Bible teaches is right and good.

If we do not, we leave ourselves open to dangers and attacks in the spiritual battle.

The next piece we are to have on is “the breastplate of righteousness.”

The Roman breastplate was often made of leather or heavy linen; some were made of large pieces of metal molded to conform to the body.

It covered the body from the neck to the waist and was of course used to protect the body’s vital organs, the core of his physical life. As such, the breastplate was an essential piece of armor.

We are righteous in Christ positionally. Paul speaks in Romans 3:22 of this righteousness: “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.”

We receive Christ’s righteousness the moment we trust the gospel and are made the righteousness of God in Christ, and we are justified and declared righteous judicially by God. This positional righteousness can never be lost or taken away.

The Bible also speaks of practical righteousness, that is to flow from our positional righteousness by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We receive the righteousness of God by faith in Christ alone at salvation, and the practical righteousness of right living is also the result of faith in Christ.

God desires His Church to be righteous in their every day practical experience.

The breastplate of righteousness has to do with doing what is right and in accordance with God’s righteous Word in the Christian life. It’s a breastplate of godliness, goodness, pure living, upright character, having nothing evil that can be said of us.

The unrighteous one, who is the accuser of the brethren, Satan, desires to have something evil that can be said of us, to discredit us and destroy our testimonies for Christ. So he tempts and tries to steer us away from living lives of righteousness.

But as Ephesians 5:9 again says, “For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and RIGHTEOUSNESS and truth.”

So as we allow the Spirit to work in our lives, and we live by the Word, and pray, and serve the Lord, the Spirit can and will produce righteousness in our lives.

Paul says that the believer needs to constantly have the breastplate of righteousness on, to be ready in the battle against the attacks against the church and your testimony, by consistently living a righteous life in Christ.

James Emery White: In ancient China, the people desired security from the barbaric, invading hordes to the north. To get this protection, they built the Great Wall of China. It’s 30 feet high, 18 feet thick, and more than 1,500 miles long!

The Chinese goal was to build an absolutely impenetrable defense—too high to climb over, too thick to break down, and too long to go around.

But during the first hundred years of the wall’s existence, China was successfully invaded three times. It wasn’t the wall’s fault. During all three invasions, the barbaric hordes never climbed over the wall, broke it down, or went around it; they simply bribed a gatekeeper and then marched right in through an open door.

And so in our spiritual battle, we can give Satan an open door thru a breakdown in our Christian life and character, in not giving an area of our lives over to God, in not living in obedience to the Word, in living in unrighteousness and not the righteousness of God.

Ephesians 6:15 says, “And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.”

In continuing his description of God’s armor, Paul says we need to have our feet shod. We need to keep our boots on.

Harold Hoehner describes the shoes of a Roman soldier: “The Roman legionaries wore heavy sandals…with soles made of several layers of leather averaging ¾ inch thick, studded with hollow headed hobnails. They were tied by leather thongs halfway up the shin and were stuffed with wool or fur in the cold weather.”

The shoes to the Roman soldier were vitally important. Having feet that were blistered, cut, or swollen could have proved fatal in battle in not being able to stand and fight or advance rapidly.

They had to march and fight on all kinds of terrain, on rough hot roads, climbing up slippery hills, wading through rivers and streams with jagged rocks.

The imbedded bits of metal or nails gave them traction on slick terrain and stability when sustaining sharp blows from an attacker.

It’s kind of like cleats in football or baseball, it gave them maximum footing and traction to prevent sliding.

The subject matter here is standing and fighting the devil. Our footing against Satan is our peace with God. “The gospel of peace” is the good news that in Christ we are forever at peace with God and now have His peace in our hearts and lives.

Romans 5:1 teaches: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We are to stand in this battle, ready, with our feed shod, in the confidence of our right relationship with God. And we don’t need to fear the attack of Satan, as we can face the attack in the peace of God.

As Philippians 4:7 tells us “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep [guard, protect] your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

In this spiritual warfare, the peace that we have in Christ gives us a firm standing for any sharp blow or temptation that Satan brings our way, so that we can remain upright and on our feet and be able to stand in the evil day when he attacks.

When the devil taunts and pressures and then strikes, by the peace of God and our peace with God, we can be ready and able to stand stable and firm.

And with your feed shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, we are also called in the spiritual battle to spread the good news of peace with God through Christ to the troubled and restless world around us.

As Romans 10:15 says, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”

Ephesians 6:16 says, “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”

On the battlefield, the belt, breastplate and shoes were never taken off. The shield, helmet, and sword were kept close by and grabbed when the fighting began. And thus we see how Paul now talks about “taking” these pieces up in the battle.

And Paul says above all we need to take the shield of faith. The Roman shield was usually a four and a half foot oval or rectangle, made of wood, covered with tough leather, framed with iron.

It was designed to protect the soldier’s entire body, as they could hunker down behind it when arrows were fired at them.

The shields were sometimes soaked in water prior to battle in order to quench or extinguish fiery arrows and darts.

It’s been said that “In battle this shield could be locked together with others to form a wall in front, and a roof overhead.”

The shield of faith for the Christian soldier is basic trust in God, trusting Him for His provision and His help, depending on His presence and power.

Paul shows us here that it will be necessary for us at times in this battle, to just hide ourselves in Christ through faith and dependence. Proverbs 30:5: “He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.” Psalm 119:114: “Thou art my hiding place and my shield.”

It’s been said that “Faith puts God between you and the enemy.” And no fiery darts will hit us if God is between us and the enemy. In Christ, we have all the protection we need against Satan and his army. As Paul says, that by the shield of faith, “ye shall be able to quench ALL the fiery darts of the wicked.”

The fiery darts were arrows with their tips wrapped with pieces of cloth that had been soaked in a flammable liquid. Then just before the arrow was shot it was lit.

Whatever the dart hit, on impact burning bits of cloth would spatter all around for several feet igniting anything flammable it touched in that area. Paul says that the wicked one shoots fiery darts at us in our spiritual battle.

These flaming arrows can take many forms: temptation, hatred, anger, covetousness, pride, envy, lust, hopelessness, stubbornness, deception, jealousy, frustration, guilt.

There are the fiery darts of discouragement, or fear, or worry, or doubt or confusion. The list could go on and on. The shield of faith in God though, provides an impenetrable protection from “all” of these things.

We simply need to, by an act of our will, take up the shield of faith and turn and trust in God, hide in Him, and trusting Him and His power to help us. In doing so, we are being strong in the Lord and the power of His might, and so we can stand firm.

Ephesians 6:17 says: “And take the helmet of salvation…”

Paul also tells us to take the helmet of salvation. These helmets on Roman soldiers were made of bronze fitted over an iron skull cap lined with leather or cloth. They often had a band to protect the forehead and plates to protect the nose and cheeks. Little of the head was exposed to danger, but they would still see clearly out of it.

The helmet of course protected the head from injury. The parallel that we would understand to the helmet would be like a football helmet or a motorcycle helmet that could protect blows from crushing the skull.

The helmet of salvation has to do with Satan’s attacks on our minds. It guards our heads from attacks on our thinking.

2 Corinthians 11:3: “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

Satan tries to convince us that we don’t really belong to Christ, and that we are not eternally secure. Satan is a thief and he wants to rob us of our joy and of the hope of our resurrection, our glorification, and our eternal hope and home in heaven.

The helmet of salvation is to guard and protect our minds against internal unbelief, questioning or uncertainty and against outside attacks by the devil to doubt salvation.

In the spiritual battle, Satan plants seeds of doubt and fear, and reminds us of failures and sins to discourage us in our walk and service and take our eyes off Christ.

Having on the helmet of salvation keeps our mind focused on Christ and the full salvation, security and assurance we have in Him, and that we’re complete in Him.

Having on the helmet of salvation, we can stand strong in the battle, knowing that Christ’s sacrifice has fully paid our sin debt, that we are justified, redeemed, and forgiven of all our sins, and that by “the holy Spirit of God…ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” as Ephesians 4:30 says.

We can stand in this battle also knowing we have a sure hope of the Rapture of the Church and that we will be “delivered…from the wrath to come” as 1 Thessalonians 1:10 says; we are delivered from the future Tribulation period.

We can stand in the battle knowing that we will be delivered from sin’s presence one day in heaven and that our present struggle with the devil and his army will not last forever and is only for this life.

The helmet of salvation is about protecting our minds, knowledge and thinking and thus taking the helmet of salvation is a call to know and be grounded in the Word of God, rightly divided. It’s a call to know what the gospel is for today, that it is the gospel of the grace of God that saves people from their sins and gives them a home in heaven forever.

When we rightly divide the Word, we will not mix the gospel of grace with elements from the gospel of the kingdom, and we will keep the gospel of grace pure and unmixed, and that it is by grace through faith alone we are saved, just believing that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day.

Taking the helmet of salvation is also about having salvation always on our minds, so we realize the need of others around us who aren’t saved and who need Christ.

The helmet of salvation is to keep us sensitive and aware to the need of people for the gospel. It’s to cause us to ponder and think about life through God’s viewpoint and to keep the eternal destiny of souls at the forefront of our minds and hearts.

While we wait for Christ’s return, we live in a world of spiritual darkness that is hostile to spiritual truth.

There is a battle raging all around us, a battle for the hearts and minds of people and every believer is a soldier in that battle. We must protect ourselves against Satan’s constant attacks and we must reach out with our hope.

So to review, the armor is really very practical. It speaks of our need in the spiritual battle to be people of the Word and the truth, who live in righteousness, with the peace of God giving us a firm footing in life, being people of faith, who stand in the assurance of our salvation and with the salvation of souls always on our mind.