Strong Armor Weak Followers

Strong Armor for Weak Followers

Invisible War #7 Eph 6:10-17 PASTOR TOM MITCHELL

A Texas politician was asked why a certain candidate had lost an election. “It happened because he forgot the first rule of knife fighting. There are no rules.” Satan doesn’t fight fair. That is why we are told: “… be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground…….”

We are in a series called the Invisible War. We believe there are things we CAN’T see that impact what we CAN see. We believe that this invisible world is dangerous and is life threatening unless you learn how to “stand firm in the Lord and put on the armor.” Let’s look at each piece of armor.

Belt of truth -“Stand firm with the belt of Truth buckled around your waist.” The belt the Roman soldiers wore held up the lower garments so that his legs were loose so he could fight freely.

Our protective belt is made of truth – the truth of God, which is revealed in the Bible, as well as truth of character, or integrity.

The focus here is transformed character. The issue is about someone whose life is lived faithfully and with integrity. What they profess and how they lived were one and the same. They were faithful followers of Christ.

Paul Tillich was an American theologian in the last century. But his life was a moral disaster. He was dishonest, deceitful, adulterous, manipulative, but somehow his books have influenced Protestantism. The question is why were so many people interested in a man whose life was so untruthful, unfaithful?

We must not only know Biblical truth, we are to be shaped by the Bible’s truth. We need faithful followers of Jesus.

Breastplate of Righteousness. The breastplate covered the vital organs of the chest, especially the heart. It was like an ancient bulletproof vest. The righteousness Paul has in mind comes to us by virtue of our right relationship with God. Having been declared righteous by God. “Since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.. (Rom 5:1).

Remember this, the righteousness we must have is the righteousness given to us by Jesus. Jesus died for us and as a result of his death on our behalf, Jesus declared me “just” or righteous.

In the OT there is a story of Joseph. He was a righteous man who was working for a man named Potipher. But Potipher’s wife had her eye on Joseph and tried to seduce him. Joseph said “How could I do this great evil and sin against God?” He was not like many today.

Some think “my wife doesn’t really understand me. Or my husband is too busy and ignores me. God is a god of love isn’t he? Besides God doesn’t want unhappiness in the marriage and a different marriage would make a happy marriage, wouldn’t it? It’s good of God to bring me someone who really values me for who I am.”

Show me instead the Jesus follower who looks at sin, however attractive it is and labels it right away for what it is, “sin.” Joseph labeled it as sin. You cannot protect yourself against temptation unless you are committed to be righteous! And Eph 6 says we are to put on the “breastplate of righteousness” because it assures us that we have been made right with God through the blood of Jesus. That protects us and empowers us to live holy lives.

Feet fitted with the gospel of peace. For 37 years David Guralnik served as editor of Webster’s New World Dictionary. When he retired in 1985, he was asked to name the most significant word in the English language. Do you know what word he chose? “Peace.”

When Paul speaks of the “gospel of peace,” he means that the gospel itself is the only true source of peace. Because of Jesus, we now have peace with God (Rom 5:1). . And we can have peace with our brothers and sisters in Christ. That’s why Paul speaks of “keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”(Eph 4:3).

The local church is to be a place, where because of Jesus, we can be people who surpass the normal barriers of age, class, language, skin color, ethnic group, culture, political ideology, and all the other things that keep us separate and divided into our different tribes.

You may be German and I am Scotch.
You may be young and I may be old.
You may be republican and I may be independent.
You may be rich and I may be less rich.

You may be pepperoni and I may be sausage.

You may be country and I maybe easy listening.

You may be wrong and I am right.

We could make a long list of all the differences that separate us. But if you are a Christian and I am a Christian, then there exists a bond between us greater than language or culture and stronger than social class or age or race. We are brothers and sisters in Christ and therefore there should be peace between us.

Two thousand years ago as Christianity spread across the Mediterranean world, unbelievers said of those early disciples, “See how they love one another.” People will still say that today if we faithfully put on the gospel of peace with God and keep the unity of peace with each other.

Shield of Faith. Theshield Paul describeswas a full body shield 4ft x 2 ½ ft of hide-covered wood. The enemy would shoot at them with arrows dipped in pitch and lit on fire. “In addition to all these take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” (v16)

Partly this means that we are to learn to trust Jesus so that whenever the Devil comes to us and says, “You really are a piece of work. You think you’re a Christian with all the sin in your life. You really don’t measure up.” You don’t answer back, yes but I’m trying real hard.” You answer back and say the words of the old gospel hymn that says, “my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I have no other argument, and no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that He died for me.”

Rev. 12:11 says: “they overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony….” This verse refers to the Passover in the OT. The Passover is where God told the people of Israel to put the blood of a lamb over the door of their homes so that the death angel, that was sent by God to punish the Egyptians, would pass over their house.

Picture two Jews, Pete and Jeff, at that first Passover in Egypt.

Pete and Jeff are two Jews who have been through the first Nine plagues that were sent to convince Pharaoh to release the Jews from captivity. Now they are about to experience the last plague. They have been told by Moses to put blood on the doorpost and then when the angel of death passes through the land, their first-born will not die. So they have done it and now Pete and Jeff are having a talk over the back fence. Pete says, “Jeff, have you put the blood on the door posts?” Jeff says, “of course.” I don’t want to lose my son! That’s what Moses told us to do. God himself has promised that the angel of death will pass over. Haven’t you done it?”

“Well,” says Pete, “I have but I’m not sure. I’ve seen one plague after another come and go. But why should some blood on the door stop the angel of death from killing my son? I’m not sure about this whole thing.” Jeff says, “I’m not concerned about it. I put the blood on the door, I did what I was told. God said, put the blood on the door and your son will be saved.” Pete says, “I know but you’ve got three sons and I only got one, if I lose him I don’t have any at all.”

Here’s a question: When the angel of death passed through the land, which one of these two guys lost his first born son? The answer is, NEITHER! Why? Because the promise was not based on the intensity of each mans faith. It was base on the object of the faith. The promise was not based on how enthusiastically or with what assurance Pete and Jeff believed. The promise was based on believing and doing what they were told. And neither lost his son.

We need to come to terms with the fact that when the Devil shoots his arrows and tries to discourage or destroy us because of our failures, our proper response is NOT to say, “but I didn’t believe very hard. I’ll try harder next time.” Our correct response is: “the object of my faith is Jesus and he has forgiven me, so butt out Satan.”

D.A. Carson tells this story about his daughter. They were living in England at the time and his daughters best friend was supposed to come to England for Christmas. The day before Carson was to pick the friend up at the airport, her parents called and shared that she had just been diagnosed with Leukemia and wasn’t coming. This girl’s health deteriorated very fast, despite the best efforts of the medical community. Carson flew his daughter home to spend three weeks at her bedside.

Carson’s daughter was there 12 hours a day helping her manage her daily medical tasks. Then Carson’s daughter flew back to England and in June the friend died.

In July Carson’s family moved back to Chicago and His daughter handled most of it very well. She grieved and talked openly. But Carson could see it was eating her up. He went in to her room one day when he heard her crying. He put his arm around her and said, “tell me about what is going on.” She said, “Daddy God could have saved my best friend and He didn’t, I hate Him!” Carson said, “Honey I am so pleased you told me. You must ask yourself two questions:

First – Do you want a god like the genie in Aladdin’s lamp, very powerful but the question is, who controls the lamp? Or do you want a God so powerful, so big that sometimes He does stuff that you don’t understand. And your job is to trust Him?”

Second – Before you become too convinced that God doesn’t love you, or that God has it in for you, you always have to consider the cross. I know you lost your best friend, but remember God lost His Son. In fact He GAVE His Son.”

The one thing that is absolutely certain in this church is that there are a lot of people who hurt. We have troubled marriages, people struggling with finances, or difficulties at work, or grief issues, or issues with your kids or issues with your parents. And if you are having a good year, then cheer up, it will get worse! The one thing we can be certain of in this life is that the only thing that will stop you from suffering is death! If you live long enough you will suffer, you will grieve, you will get sick, you will experience heartache, it’s going to happen.

The Devil will want to get you, especially when you’re a going through hard times. Anyone can be happy when things are going well. But will you have the joy of the Lord when the bottom drops out?

Here then is why the shield of faith is so important. It involves deepening your knowledge of the object of your faith – knowing Jesus better and better. Why?

So that when the Devil shoots his arrows at you, and he will, you will be able to “stand your ground”, you will be able to be “strong in the Lord” if you hold up that shield of faith.

Helmet of Salvation. The Christians helmet is salvation. Satan would love to aim his weapons at our minds, trying to convince us that there is NO salvation in Jesus. Satan would like to rob us of the assurance that Jesus is doing life with us now. Satan would like to rob us of our hope in our eternal life in heaven. Satan would like to rob us of the confidence we have in Jesus ultimate and complete victory over all the forces of evil.

What protects the believer against Satan’s attacks is this: Jesus has already saved us. You CAN NOT be protected against Satan and his attacks if you have not put your trust in Jesus as your savior and received him by personal invitation. If you haven’t experienced Jesus’ salvation, I urge you to “…confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Rom 10:9) The helmet of salvation speaks of the assurance of salvation. It is what Paul meant when he said that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:38-39).

Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. The Christian’s sword is the Bible and it’s principles. This is why it’s so very important to read and study the Bible. God’s Word in our hearts, our heads, and hands gives us to he power to fight back. Nothing defeats Satan’ schemes like the Word of God.

Eph 6:13: “Put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm”(NLT). I love that last phrase: “You will still be standing firm.” That’s God’s goal for every believer.