The Whole Armor Of God

  By Pastor Andrew J. Webb
Preached 12/22/02

Ephesians 6:14-18
14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;
18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints --

Greetings Soldiers of Christ!

Sounds a little odd and artificial to address a Christian congregation that way doesn't it? Perhaps even a little comical? But why should that be? The Apostle Paul frequently compared Christians to soldiers of Christ:

Phil. 1:2: to the beloved Apphia, Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house:

Phil 2:25 Yet I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, but your messenger and the one who ministered to my need;

Timothy 2:3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

and Scripture speaks of our lives in terms of spiritual warfare, in which we are called to be engaged in active duty:

"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds" (2 Cor. 10:4)

But perhaps, this strikes us as odd because as Christians in modern day America, we have to a large extent ceased to be the church militant, and have instead become the church complaisant.

We expect glory in the end;

But a glory that comes as though at the end of a long lazy nap in the summer sunshine we finally roll out of the hammock, gather up our empty lemonade glass, put back on our flip-flops and go into the house where we will find the feast, that Christ will share with the saints, on the table waiting for us.

Not for us is the difficult path of the pilgrim warrior who passes through many difficult battles until bloodied but unbroken he arrives at the end of the King's Highway, and passes through the gates of the Celestial City to be greeted by the words of his Master: "Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord."

You know though that the long peacefully snoozing civilian view of the church is totally alien to Scripture. And yet it seems to have become the default view to a certain extent. Perhaps that is because both as individuals and as a church we have failed to heed the advice of Paul to Timothy his Spiritual Son and apprentice in the ministry:

Timothy 2:4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.

You allow yourself to become entangled, when you allow the things of this present fleeting world to become the center of your life, rather than merely peripheral parts of it. Your Job, sports, entertainment, recreation, TV, politics, even family - a whole gamut of things that while they are lawful for you to do, they should never be allowed to take that central ENTHRONED position that only Christ should have.

I say this partially jestingly, but every Christian should be able to look at their spouse and say "Honey, you'll always be #2 in my heart!" Because of course, only Christ can be #1.

And if Jesus Christ is truly central in your lives, as He should be, then serving him faithfully in whatever arena of life you are in will mean taking up the arms and armor that he has given to his children and using them as they are meant to be used. It will mean being the watchful, prayerful, fully armored, battle-tested, gung-ho Christian soldier you are called to be.

For remember if instead you are entangled, ensnared, by the affairs of this life, you will be open and unprepared for the assaults of the wicked one, and eventually, but surely, you will go from being entangled by lawful things, to entangled in sin. There is no neutral ground in Spiritual Warfare. No Switzerland you can flee too. You are either a standing or falling Christian – and if you would be a Standing Christian you MUST take up the Armor and Weapons of Christ that you might stand in this evil day.

So Paul urges you as soldiers on active duty, to put your equipment on, to test it, to try it, to be familiar with it, that when battle comes, you would be as prepared as you can be. The Arms and Armor Paul is using to metaphorically illustrate the spiritual gifts and graces that Christ has provided us with for the battle, is the equipment of the Roman soldier of Paul's day. An image any citizen of the empire would have been familiar with.

Christian Soldiers – There stands the Battle Line of the enemy, all the desperate forces of the Triumvirate of Evil, the Devil, his minions, and his allies the World and the Flesh, are arrayed before you. They have every terrible weapon that sin and rebellion can craft at their disposal. And the knowledge that the Lamb of God, our Savior Jesus Christ has defeated them makes them all the more enraged and desperate to pull you down and rend you, for they know their time is short.

Are you comfortable then with the idea of going into that battle in your T-Shirt, Shorts, flip-flops, and sunglasses, holding nothing but TV guide in your hand??? Well then! Lets put your armor on, the Armor of Christ, piece by piece, exactly as the Roman Soldier, preparing for battle would have.

First in Verse 14: We have the Girdle of Truth The Ancient Girdle is a kind of wide belt designed to bind up the loose clothing. You remember that whenever the Lord wanted to tell people in the Old Testament to be ready for instant action to "GIRD UP THEIR LOINS"? Well that essentially means tuck your loose clothing into your belt.

Strictly the girdle is not part of the armor, but before armor may be put on the garments must be bound together – it is necessary in order to run and fight.

This necessary undergirding that we have is truth. This is not truth as a natural virtue, for we are speaking here of the armor of Christ – supernatural gifts and graces given to believers, but rather the objective realities of the Gospel. Truth is to be understood as the dependable reality that has come to us in the Gospel.

John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

Human Reason, tradition, speculation, even dead orthodoxy, will never be sufficient to gird us. They will give way in the battle. Truth alone, abiding in the mind in the form of divine knowledge, can give spiritual strength, vigor, and confidence even in the ordinary conflicts of the Christian life. Only the "true truth" to use Francis Schaeffer's phrase of the Christian faith, will suffice in any really "evil day."

Over that Belt of Truth, you next put on the Breastplate of Righteousness. This righteousness likewise is not our imperfect righteousness – it is the very righteousness of Christ that is imputed or transferred to you through Justification. This is righteousness Paul speaks of in Phil. 3:8-9

"Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;"

Only Christ's righteousness is impervious to any attack, any accusation. Our own righteousness, is not even Armor, it is but filthy rags as Isaiah 64:6 calls it.

Next in Verse 15 you must put on your combat boots, that is the Gospel of Peace. This is the prepared foundation – the solid rock of the Gospel. You can only stand on the Gospel, you will not be able to stand on speculations. This is your firm footing, that will allow you to stand in the evil day. When you are assaulted by Satan and are tempted to run or fall, you look to the good news of the gospel and you see our changed standing. You are no longer enemies and rebels, you have peace with God through Christ. You are Sons, and the Gospel gives you that assurance. You have been sealed for the day of redemption.

Doubt leads to weakness, but the gospel is our assurance of forgiveness.

Beware The Devil's wheedling – "are you sure? Perhaps you'd better put your trust in something you can do, or taste, or see, or touch." But this is our title-deed.

Next you must pick up your shield of faith in Verse 16:

The Roman Shield 4 feet long by two and a half-wide was made of thick wood, embossed with steel, and then covered with animal hide. Before a battle the shield would be soaked in water so that the wet hide would not ignite.

The faith here is that faith by which you are justified, and reconciled to God through the blood of Christ. It is that faith of which Christ is the object; which receives him as the Son of God and the Savior of men. It is the faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen; which at once apprehends or discerns, and receives the things of the Spirit. It overcomes the world.

This faith is the gift of God, it is not self-generated. By this faith we are enabled to lay hold of Christ and all his saving benefits. It alone can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one:

What on earth are the burning arrows of the wicked one (Satan?)

If you are still skeptical about the whether rational Christians can believe in "silly things" like spiritual warfare or the direct assaults of the all-to-real Devil on believers, then listen to the Princeton theologian Charles Hodge. Who was certainly never accused of being an irrational enthusiast:

Soldiers, in Verse 17 you take up the Helmet of Salvation, and the Sword of the Spirit. This is the Helmet of victory, it has reference to Is. 59:17 – "For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, And was clad with zeal as a cloak."

You receive this Helmet from Christ as an objective assurance that the decisive battle has been already fought and won on our behalf. So in putting it on we are subjectively trusting in that salvation which is at once given and promised, which is ours both in present possession and future prospect. ALREADY/NOT YET.

The Helmet protects the head and keeps his vision clear through its visor. Through it all we remember the objective character of our salvation and don't get bogged down in our subjective spiritual state.

The Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God – this is the only offensive weapon in the equipment of the Christian Soldier.

Jesus promised to give to his disciples a word and wisdom which all their enemies would not be able to defeat or resist. In opposition to all error, to all false philosophy, to all false principles of morals, to all the subtle arguments of vice, to all the suggestions of the devil, the sole, simple, and sufficient answer is the word of God.

This Sword puts to flight all the powers of darkness. You will find this to be true in your individual experience. It dissipates your doubts; it drives away your fears; it delivers your from the power of Satan. It is also the experience of the church. All her triumphs over sin and error have been effected by the word of God - all her defeats have occurred when she has strayed from it. So long as she uses this Sword and relies on it alone, she goes on conquering; but when anything else, be it reason, science, tradition, or the commandments of men, is allowed to take its place or to share its place, then the church, or the Christian, is at the mercy of the adversary.

Lastly, in verse 18 we learn you are not fully prepared without Prayer – watch and pray – how we enter into a state of spiritual preparedness.

We do not only pray for ourselves but for all the members of "God's Army"

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