Ephesians 6:10-20 • The Armor of Faith
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Let's continue to think about the power of God in our lives as you look in your bibles at Ephesians chapter 6, Ephesians chapter 6, as we will be looking at verses 10-20.
Last week, we said Christ is risen and what?
He is risen indeed.
So what?
I mean, we have a great celebration.
We enjoy the music.
We have families together.
Is that all?
I mean, what is the significance of Christ the Lord being risen?
If He is risen, if He is alive, that means He by His Spirit is present, here, powerful, and for us.
The reality of that, not just in terms of the power, but the reason we must have it is addressed in Ephesians chapter 6.
I'm going to ask that you stand as we look at Ephesians 6 verses 10-20.
In your Grace Bibles, that's page 979.
The apostle Paul writes, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.
In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak."
Let's pray together.
>>> Father, You make us ambassadors for the gospel, every generation, every person, every place.
And yet You tell us plainly there is opposition.
So grant us the confidence of the power of Christ at work in us and for us and all about us, that we might be prepared for the battle of our lives as we would be witnesses for Christ in every place.
This we ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.
>>> Please be seated.
Who were the heroes of the championship N.C.A.A. final game?
Duke.
And who were the chief heroes then?
Two freshmen.
Do you remember?
Two freshmen guards: Grayson Allen, Tyus Jones, the smallest people on the floor.
And yet they were the heroes of the game, giving inspiration to people of my stature.
[Laughter]
That even in a game of giants, there may be those who contribute if they have the right power.
It reminded me so much of my junior high basketball coach who put a plaque outside his office, I think just for me: It's not the size of the dog in the fight that counts; it's the size of the fight in the dog that counts.
What is our fight as believers?
The apostle Paul has made it clear.
It is spiritual warfare.
And reminding us that the power that is within us is of Christ Himself.
And the importance of that is recognizing that we are not talking about mystical fantasy things when we talk about spiritual warfare.
We are talking about current, daily, present realities.
What is spiritual warfare?
It is as current as 147 college students being murdered in Kenya because they could not recite portions of the Koran at that Christian school.
Young people as of the age of those who were standing here on this stage just moments ago: 147 murdered for their faith.
It is as ugly, this spiritual warfare, as 21 Coptic Christians, just normal construction workers, people such as workers in our congregation, taken from their place of work, kidnapped, and beheaded because they said, "Jesus is Lord."
People like you, people like me, in true spiritual warfare.
It is as devastating, this spiritual warfare, as trying to muster faith and forgiveness and hope when a spouse or friend or family betrays you.
It is as challenging as affirming that God is real and He is near when seven friends die in a plane crash in the fog.
It is as personal and as hidden as when we struggle in the darkness against our own lusts and bitterness and our unforgiveness and pray, "God, help me."
Spiritual warfare is real and it is here.
But what the apostle Paul is saying is when spiritual warfare comes, you are not alone.
Tomorrow is not hopeless.
Today you are not powerless.
Evil shall not win.
Christ shall reign and He is here.
And that reality of the power of Christ for us is to be claimed for the spiritual warfare that is certain to face us.
How do we claim the reality of Christ's victory?
It begins by simply claiming the spiritual advantages that are clearly ours.
Those spiritual advantages begin with understanding Christ's nature for us.
The opening words of this portion of scripture, 6 verse 10, "Finally, be strong in the Lord."
I mean, just the word "finally" is the understanding of the apostle Paul that we have background to what he is about to say: that already in this book of Ephesians he has said, "Remember, you are loved eternally, from eternally past to eternity future."
And not only are you loved eternally, you are loved unconditionally: not based upon your works, not excluded because of your ethnicity, not excluded because of your past, not excluded because of your poverty, none of that.
The dividing wall of hostility has been broken down between you and God and you and everybody else who is named by the name of Christ Jesus.
You are brothers and sisters in the faith, which means not only are you loved unconditionally: You are strengthened corporately.
Different people have been brought together of different gifts as well as different backgrounds, all in God's eternal plan to bring people into the church who would benefit one another, who by their different gifts, backgrounds and talents, would be put together with such a chain linking of talent, ability, and difference that Satan could be withstood.
And this operates not just in the church but in family as well as we come together according to God's plan.
"Finally," he says, after you understand all of that, the climax: "Be strong in the Lord."
That should be familiar language to us now, to recognize that you by nature are united to the nature of Christ.
Thirty-five times in this one letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul reminds us, "You are in Christ; you're united to Christ; you are in the Lord."
Two hundred times in his letters, the apostle Paul keeps saying, "You are in the Lord; you are united to Him."
Do you remember the significance?
It's like that notion of the Russian nesting dolls.
Remember?
One inside another inside another.
That you are in Christ, nestled inside Him so that His nature has become your--.
You're surrounded by His righteousness.
What is true of Him is now true of you.
It's what the theologians call the great truth of the gospel of the double transfer: that the sin that is on us has been transferred to Him and the righteousness that He had is now ours that we are without sin.
"God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him," there it is again, the union language, "we might become the righteousness of God."
Not only our sin placed on Him but the understanding that our lives are in Him, that we are hidden inside Christ.
We are surrounded by His nature, His righteousness.
He has become our identity.
So that I recognize now that this truth is to be mine.
Satan would love to weaken me by saying, "You weakling.
You are reviled by God, hated by Him, an enemy."
And yet as we say, "No, I am in Christ."
What is true of Him is now true of me.
By the great nature of the grace of the gospel, God calls me His child and loves me as much as He loves Jesus Christ, because I am in Christ.
That reality is to help us rise with hope and strength for what God now calls us to do.
Just to think how strong is that image for the apostle Paul of what it means to be in Christ Jesus, united to Him.
You have to see this portion of scripture, perhaps with new eyes.
You know this is all about the armor of God and our putting on the armor of God.
But in that notion of putting on the armor of God, sometimes we begin to think: Alright, what do I bring to the game?
What am I going to put on that helps me fight?
You need to read with different eyes what is in the apostle's understanding of this armor of God.
Think of it now.
You know these opening words, many of you.
Verse 14, "Stand, having fastened the belt of truth."
Verse 14.
Where do we get this notion: "Stand firm, having put on the belt of truth"?
As though I'm going to tell the truth enough so I'm going to be strong.
No, it's not the reference at all.
Where does the apostle get the language of our putting on the belt of truth?
That's actually from Isaiah 11 and verse 5.
"When the Messiah comes, he will come with the belt of righteousness and faithfulness.
Integrity before the Lord will be his belt."
The belt of truth is actually the belt of the Messiah from the Old Testament.
What about verse 14?
"Having put on the breastplate of righteousness."
Where does that come from?
That's Isaiah 59:17, "The Messiah will come with righteousness as his breastplate."
You should have the shoes that are marked by having put on the readiness of the gospel of peace.
Where do those shoes come from?
You might actually want to see, if you still have your bibles open, Isaiah 59, Isaiah 59 and verse 17.
In your Grace Bible, that's page 613.
What is the nature of these shoes that are talking about the gospel of peace being taken to other people?
In Isaiah chapter 52 verse 6, God is talking about something that He will do, particularly as He redeems His people with the Messiah.
Verse 6, "My people shall know my name.
Therefore in that day," that is the day of their rescue, "they shall know it is I who speak; here am I."
And what is the nature of that one who speaks?
Verse 7, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'"
It's actually the peace of Christ that we are to put on.
The shoes that we have that take us from one troubled situation to another is the reality of Christ for us.
I face my weakness, I face the assaults of the evil one, I face the troubles of the world, but why am I at peace?
Because Christ is for me.
And I go everywhere I go shod with the good news of the peace of the gospel of Christ.
Also in verse 17, "Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God."
Now, you know that appears somewhere else in the Bible, right?
Remember in the book of Revelation, we are told that when the Redeemer comes at the end of times, He will come riding a horse.
And what will be coming out of His mouth?
The sword of the Word, sharper than two, any two-edged sword, and the one who speaks that Word of truth will have on His thigh and on His robe, "King of king and Lord of lords."
The one who speaks that truth, the one who has the sword of truth, is nonetheless than Jesus Christ our King.
Every description of the peace of armor is ultimately our putting on the reality of Christ.
This armor is not something we create: It's something that we claim.
And the goodness and the hope that is in that is what Satan will constantly try to do is make us question our own resistance, our resolve, our righteousness, at which time we cling, "No, I am in Christ Jesus."
Satan says, "You weakling."
And we say, "But Christ is my righteousness.
That is my breastplate."
We twist and turn at night, wondering how we shall deal with the trial or the people who are upset with us or the people that we are upset with.
And we remember: But Christ is my peace, and for that reason, I can get up and do what God has called me to do, because I am in Christ Jesus.
I won't tell you it's easy.
It's armor that has to be borne.
But it, at the same time, it's not the armor of our creation but that in which we exist we are God's own people.
I think of how it is expressed so well recently by M.B.A. Lakers' star Jeremy Lin.
And if you follow basketball at all, you know he's having his worst year ever.
Back on New Year's Day, Jeremy Lin, who, by the way, is also an outspoken Christian, wrote on his blog what a difficult year it has been as he has gone through this terrible slump.
And he said, "I am in the fight of my life for joy."
And then wrote this: "Only when I focus on who God is and how much He loves me, am I able to live with joy and freedom."
Why?
Because he's got on his gospel armor.
The world is throwing at him assault and insult and he is saying, "But I have about me the truth of the reality of the love of God.
I have Christ's righteousness, not my goodness, that shields me.
I ultimately recognize that what God has called me to do is the peace of the fact that He loves me even when the world hates me."
It's being in Christ that is our armor.
And it's not only claiming His nature for ourselves: The apostle wants us to recognize that part of claiming the spiritual advantages that are ours is not just claiming Christ's nature but his power.
Do you recognize how important it is when we see in verse 11 toward the end, "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand."
You are to be strong, verse 10, in the power of His might so that you can actually stand.
It's the reminder that there is power for us that is greater than the power that is against us.
What, after all, is the power that is for us that the apostle wants us to recognize?
When he says in verse 10, "Be strong in the strength of God's might, of Christ's might," what's he referring to?
He's actually mentioned it several times in this letter already.
But I want you to look at the most significant.
It was right at the very beginning.
Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 18.
A lot of you, if you were raised on the N.I.V., you recognize kind of the wonder of that notion from Ephesians 1 where we were asked, the apostle prayed that the eyes of our hearts would be open.
Isn't that a wonderful image?
I prayed that the eyes of your heart would be open, that you could see the truth of God.
But what is that truth that our eyes are to be opened to, the eyes of our heart?
Verse 18, chapter 1: Paul is praying for Christians that they would be having "the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you."
Verse 19, "And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places."
The might that we are to be strong in is the might of Jesus Christ that God expressed in Him when He raised Him from the dead.
That same power that raised Jesus from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit now indwells us.
And the reality of that might means that when Satan comes to us and says, "You are weak; you cannot help it; you're enslaved to this," the reality of the gospel is that is not true.
Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.
And that notion that I have true power that Satan shall not overcome, he does not have the victory, is actually necessary if I am to resist, to know that resurrection power is mine.
My conscience, sometimes my experience, and certainly the evil one says to us, "You can't help it; you can't fix this; you're a mess and you can't be fixed."
And the gospel says, "The same power that raised Jesus from the dead gives life to your mortal body and you have in you supernatural power to claim."
Do not listen to the lies of Satan that says you cannot be fixed, that life cannot be different.
The hope of the gospel is tomorrow does not have to be like yesterday.
Real hope is possible, because Jesus' power is for us.
I love that 2015 Hyundai Sonata commercial.
Have you seen it?
Where there's a little girl at a steering wheel, maybe four years old.
And she's driving a car at what looks like super speed, making tight turns, going down wooded streets.
And you're going, "Oh, boy, are we in trouble."
And then the camera pans back a little bit and you recognize it's the steering wheel to her car seat.
[Laughter]
And you pan back the camera a little bit more: You recognize her father is at the wheel.
We at times feel as though we are in control.
And then we're not in control at all as we become aware of the forces about us, but the reality is Jesus is at the wheel.
He has surrounded us.
He has taken charge.
And when we claim the reality of His nature for us because we are in Christ, we have power that is beyond just my human ability or your m--, human ability.
And the reason we need to know that is to be prepared for spiritual battle.
We need not only to claim our spiritual advantages: We need to truly recognize our spiritual adversary.
He is surely listed here.
Did you see it?
Verse 11.
As God is describing in His Word for us His enemy and ours, He says, "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil."
We're beginning to learn not just the nature of our Savior's gift and power but the nature of our adversary.
He is incredibly deceitful.
He schemes for our hurt.
He schemes across centuries.
He schemes across our families.
He schemes across our land.
He schemes across our church.
And he is very wise.
He's had thousands of years of human experience to discern what motivates us, what makes us tick, and what makes us get ticked off.
And he is deceitful.
He is more than deceitful: He is inhuman.
Did you catch the language of verse 12?
It scares us a little bit.
"We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces in the heavenly places."
Cosmic powers in this present darkness, as though the apostle is looking at the world in front of him and he says, "It is Satan who has so many powers by demonic forces, by the evil even that's within us, to do things in this present world before us."
But he says, there is also another parallel universe, as it were.
And he talks about spiritual evil in heavenly places.
He's talking about the spiritual realm.
And to say that Satan is operative in both realms to try to seek our souls as well as our families as well as the things that are all about us that can put us off of God's path into danger, into hurt, into bitterness, into unforgiveness, into the darkness, that our own souls know so well.
And that reality of these two realms being Satan's operative area have to be aware, something that we're aware of.
Some of you may have read earlier in the paper this week somebody simply citing: "What if it were not simply true that we are human beings who will eventually get to a spiritual existence?
What if we are actually spiritual beings who just have a brief human existence?"
And to recognize that Satan is operating in both worlds, the material world as well as the spiritual world, to do us damage and we can minimize that, not really understand the danger that we are in.
I have been to that castle in Germany where, after the first service some people told me they had been there too, the castle where Martin Luther translated the Bible into the language of his people, one of the great movements of the Reformation: that God's people were able to do what you now take so for granted, to have the Bible in their own language and being able to read God's Word for themselves.
When Luther was doing that, he was at risk for his own life, just for translating the Bible into the language of his people.
And so he hid in a castle and in a small room began to translate this wonderful work of God.
But it was such a powerful step of the gospel that he recognized Satan did not want this to happen.
And at some point, he so felt the reality and the presence and the power of Satan that he took his inkwell and threw it at the presence of Satan in the room.
Now, I have visited that room and, I would imagine it's been repainted many times, but there's still the splotch of the inkwell on the wall.
But more silly is the representation of Satan: a little sock monkey hanging from the ceiling with a couple of horns.
[Laughter]
Were it only so.
I mean, we tell our own tales of ghosts and goblins and Hollywood presentations of the spiritual evil and you must recognize it is all child's play.
I have been to Auschwitz where over a million people were murdered, where torture was a daily experience, where medical experiments without anesthetics for women and children were daily existence, to see evil run without check, to see it in all of its horror and recognize: This is what the Bible knows when it says that Satan prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
And we, you know, we play and we dally with things that we think are a little bit evil, that are almost good and not recognize how wise and deceitful and scheming Satan is to take us off the path of goodness and health for ourself and for our own families.
And the Bible is simply saying with reality here, "Listen, you need to know your adversary.
You are not his match."
He will overcome you if you come ouf--, off of God's path.
You do not have the ability to resist him in your humanity.
Your choices will not overcome his ways.
And the reality of that is so that we will recognize even as we see Satan, I am not his match, we will have to claim the biblical truth at the very same moment: But he has met his match.
I don't just learn the nature of Satan: I learn the nature of his power.
He has been overcome.
I'll say it to you again.
Remember verse 11 at the end?
You may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil when you put on the armor of God.
He was crushed at the cross.
He has been overcome by those who put their faith in Jesus Christ.
We have the armor of Christ about us.
And I know at times we look at the evil and we shake and we wonder: Can we stand?
In my own mind's eye at times, I think it has to almost be like a warrior on a battlefield.
And we see the evil coming at us and it's so overwhelming.
I don't it--, my father-in-law talks about it when the Panzer tanks came toward them in the Battle of the Bulge and they just could hardly imagine the power that was coming against them, how they could possible stand, how the evil was so great, how the ground shook.
And if you could imagine that you're standing before such a force coming at you and you're seeing through the visor of the armor of God was seems overwhelming, but at the same moment you hear the voice of God saying, "Stand firm.
You have on the armor of God.
The evil shall not overwhelm you.
Stand firm."
"But, Lord, don't You know, I'll lose this job if I do what You're asking."
"Stand firm."
"But, Lord, don't You know what they've done to me in this marriage?"
"Stand firm."
"Lord, they will laugh at me and I'll have no place anymore.
My reputation will be just smothered."
"Stand firm."
As great as the evil is, as much as the ground may seem to shake, stand firm.
You have the armor of the most high God, the breastplate of the righteousness of Christ, your feet shod with the peace of the gospel.
He is with you.
He is for you.
Everything that Satan is going to throw at you, stand firm.
And you will only do that not only as you recognize the advantages that are yours, the adversary that you face, but you actually rely upon the armor.
Do you recognize the armor as it has now been described?
You are to anticipate that evil will come.
Surely it will.
Right?
When Paul says in verse 13 that you are to stand firm against the schemes of the devil, why?
Because in the evil day, you must stand firm.
He's not pretending it won't happen.
If Christ was crucified and you follow in His path, the day of evil will come.
Do not listen to the voices that say you become a Christian and all troubles go away.
The Bible promises if you follow Christ you will be persecuted.
Stand firm.
How can you stand firm?
Recognize you have fastened on the belt of truth.
Yes, this seems overwhelming, but my Lord is risen.
You have put on the breastplate of righteousness.
Yes, I have all kinds of reasons that God could run away from me, but my pardon is real.
He is for me.
I have the righteousness of Jesus Christ that is mine.
Yes, it is true that my soul is troubled; I can't even sleep at night.
I know it because I'm so troubled by these things.
But I have the peace of the reality of God for me and He's still at the wheel.
This will accomplish the purposes God has intended.
I am in Him.
He is for me.
I will be at peace.
And we know that, we'll remember that, when we recognize all that Christ has done.
That is why ultimately we are told to hold up the shield of faith.
I love the scholars who tell us what that means.
That in this time in Roman warfare that the shield of faith was a Roman wooden shield in a rectangular form, but on the front of it was either leather or cloth soaked in water, so that when the fiery darts from the enemy came, they would be absorbed by and extinguished by the shield.
So Satan shoots at you and say, "You weakling," and you say, "It's been absorbed; no, I have the power of Christ."
"You vile pers--."
"No, it's been absorbed.
I have the righteousness of Christ."
"You can't possibly win in this b--."
"No, the truth is, I shall win, because Christ is for me."
I put up the shield of faith, depending upon the reality of being united to Christ.
That is my hope.
And Satan tries to crush me with the reality of my weakness and my past and my failings.
But I have on the helmet of salvation.
He has saved me.
My works never save me.
I'm not responsible for surviving this: God is my hope.
I have His salvation.
And that is what sustains me even in the hardest night and the darkest hour.
That is why I have to depend upon this sword of the Spirit that is the Word of God.
I read what the Word of God says as it is reminding me constantly of what He has done, who I am, what it means to be in Him.
And not only as I am relying upon that Word, but as call--, Paul is calling us here, and pray with supplication, not only for yourself but for the church and the witness of the gospel.
It's almost as though what the apostle is saying is make the power connection happen.
That even as you are speaking to God, you are receiving the Word of God and the connection of power is complete, because the Word from heaven comes to you even as you speak to heaven.
And the power now comes as we receive the Word and seek God in prayer.
And he says, "What that will do is remind you of what your armor is and you will operate in the strength of the Lord."
As we come to God, we are not dependent upon who we are but who He is.
And searching the Word and praying to our God reminds us of the deep reality that we need for every circumstance, every discouragement, and every assault of the evil one.
And when we have that armor on, not the armor of our strength, but dependence upon His reality, His provision, we shall win.
I think of it in terms of a prayer letter from one of my favorite missionary families: Roger and Laura Dye.
And the reason I like reading their letters is they don't write like missionaries: They write like me--, real people, you know.
[Laughter]
The struggles, the discouragements, the hurts.
And Laura wrote of, just recently, a particularly difficult time in her life where she was so discouraged and was in a bedroom weeping and praying and needing God's help.
And she wrote later, "You know, I don't remember every wrong telephone number call that I have received, but I do remember one.
I gently told the older woman at the other end of the line that she had the wrong number.
I needed to get back to my weeping.
But when I told her she had the wrong number, she said, 'That's fine; I'll just talk to you for a while.'"
[Laughter]
"So gently amused, I sat back down on the edge of the bed to hear this one out.
I thought: Well, I can always hang up.
She began, 'I just called to tell you that they who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength.
They will mount up with wings as eagles.
They will run and not get weary.
They will walk and not faint.'"
The words of Isaiah 40.
Laura writes, "She continued for at least fifteen minutes, telling me the familiar words of Scripture.
She had no idea how desperately I needed God's Word and how much I had been praying for it.
After a while, I hang up, said goodbye.
My husband said to me," she wrote, "'Who was that?'"
Laura said, "'I think it was God.'"
[Laughter]
Of course it was.
In His way, in His timing, making the connection.
As we seek Him and His Word comes to us, it is the power of God to overcome the evil one, our discouragement, our hurts, our difficulties.
Satan says, "He must hate you."
The truth about our waist, the righteousness before us, the helmet upon us says, "No, He is my God.
I am His.
And I will stand.
And His power shall be mine, because I am in Christ."
And that reality is our hope today and tomorrow and forever.
May the peace of Christ be yours through the power of the gospel this day.
>>> Father, so work Your Word into our hearts, we pray, that we who need the armor of God might not rest upon our strength, our resistance, our disciplines, our practices, our own righteousness, but would be so convinced of the reality of being in Christ, Him for us, that we rise with new hope and the strength of that reality is our joy.
And that joy becomes the reason that we live for You in the confidence of our salvation and our Savior who is our strength.
Make Jesus our power, we pray this day.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.