THE ARMOR OF GOD

September 02, 2018

Rev. Bernt P. Tweit

Old Testament Lesson; Deuteronomy 4:1-2

Deuteronomy 4:6-8

Gospel Lesson; Mark 7:1-8

Mark 7:14-15

Mark 7:21-23

Sermon Text; Ephesians 6:10-20

Back in the early 1970's, there was a man who began a new business venture. Formerly, he had been a US Marine. And, formerly he had been a pizza delivery driver. While he was delivering pizzas, he was attacked. In self defense, he ended up shooting his would be attacker. So, he said, “There has to be a better way of protecting myself.”

There was a new material that had just come out on the market known as Kevlar. And so, out of his garage, he began making bullet proof vests out of Kevlar. He called his company, Second Chance Body Armor.

By the time it got into the 1990's, there was a new product that came on the market known as Zylon. It was lighter than Kevlar was, and so he began making his bullet proof vests out of Zylon.

But, here is what he didn't know at the time, and here is what happened to the material Zylon over time. Within two years, twenty percent of its effectiveness is lost. It is all because of light, heat, and humidity.

When those bullet proof vests were brand new, this gentleman would go to police agencies, and show that he trusted in his own product. He would ask for a handgun from them, and then he would shoot himself, to show how reliable his bullet proof vest was.

Well, then in the early 2,000's there was a police officer in California, and another police officer that was either killed, or severely wounded, because that Zylon material had started to break down.

Imagine going into a battle, or being attacked, and not knowing if your body armor is going to stand the test of time. Imagine that. You would not want to go into a fight, wearing faulty body armor.

Today we are talking about the armor of God. As we talk about the armor of God, we can be reassured that the armor God has given to us to wear is reliable, and it is effective. Scripture says this about itself.

“God's Word is truth”.

It says things like:

“God's Word is living and active,

sharper than any two edged sword.”

“The scriptures cannot be broken.”

So, the body armor God gives us to wear is one hundred percent reliable.

Let's look at what the Apostle Paul says about the armor of God, as we turn our attention to Ephesians, chapter six, looking at verses ten through twenty. This is in Jesus' name. Here God's Word says:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can stand against the schemes of the Devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. For this reason, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stake a stand on the evil day and, after you have done everything, to stand. Stand, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness fastened in place, and with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace tied to your feet like sandals. At all times hold up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil One. Also take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is The Word of God.

At every opportunity, pray in the Spirit with every kind of prayer and petition. Stay alert for the same reason, always persevering in your intercession for all the saints. Pray for me also, that when I open my mouth, a message will be given to me that boldly reveals the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may speak about it boldly, as it is necessary for me to speak.

These are your words, Heavenly Father. Lead us in the way of truth. Your Word is truth.

Amen

So, today concludes our study of the book of Ephesians. For the past two months we have been looking at the book of Ephesians.

And, here is what we have seen the Apostle Paul do in his ministry. We have seen the Apostle Paul go to major metropolitan areas. When he gets there, he goes directly to they synagogue, because he knows there the people will have a very good understanding of The Old Testament scriptures. What the Apostle Paul does is he begins to 'connect the dots', and to show Jesus is the fulfillment of The Old Testament Messiah.

After 'connecting all of those dots', many of those people came to believe Jesus was the Savior of the world. They, in turn, would want to share that message with other people.

The Apostle Paul had been in Ephesus for three years, and had departed from them. Now, he is a prisoner in Rome. He is in chains. He writes this letter to them, to remind them of God's plan of salvation, God's grace for them. He reminds them by saying this.

“You have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus.”

Which means, we have been bought back from our sin, from death, and from the power of the devil, through the blood of Jesus.

Now, what is our response? What is our response to what Jesus has done for me? How is it that I am going to live my life? And so, this is the very last thing the Apostle Paul says in his letter. He begins by using the word, “Finally”. “Here's the last thing I am going to share with you.”

“Finally, be strong in the Lord...”

Next week, for our worship services, it is the youth of Holy Cross that are going to be singing this anthem, “Be strong in the Lord, and be of good courage”, reminding us of what our text for today tells us.

Today's text is also a reminder that your Christian life, and my Christian life isn't going to be a life of ease. It is going to be a struggle. When God chose you, when God called you, when God redeemed you, He didn't say it was going to be a life of ease, but there would be struggles. There would be troubles that would come into our life, because of what we believe, and because of what we profess. But, you have armor. We are not left to defend for ourselves. We are given armor.

Here is what I want you to know for today. In our text there are five defensive pieces of armor we are given. There is one offensive piece of armor, or weapon we are given. Then, I am going to say, “Plus one”. I will share that 'plus one' with you in just a moment.

Now, as the Apostle Paul is describing these items, the Ephesians would have seen this each and every day of their life, because they lived in the Roman Empire, and Paul is describing a Roman soldier. And, the Romans were the world super power at the time.

Look at the five defensive items God gives us as armor.

-The first our text talks about is “the belt of truth”. “The belt of truth” protects the bottom half of your body, from your waist down to your knees. So, when I say belt, I am not talking about the championship belt thing that Aaron Rodgers does when he scores a touchdown. I am not talking about that kind of belt. “The belt of truth” protects the bottom half of your body. It is armor that a soldier wears. It is armor a Christian has.

-“The breastplate of righteousness” is a piece of armor that protects the upper half of your body.

-Feet fitted with “readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace”. That is proper foot attire a Roman soldier would wear.

-“The shield of faith.” In Paul's day, it was not uncommon for Roman soldiers to take their wooden shields, and dunk them in water for a long period of time so that they would be water logged. The reason they would do that was so that if the enemy was shooting flaming arrows, and they hit those wood soaked shields, they would be extinguished.

-The fifth protective armor was “the helmet of salvation”.

All five of those things were to protect the Roman soldier, when they were being attacked.

-But, there is also one offensive weapon God gives to us. It is “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God”.

Again, I shared this passage with you earlier,

“God's Word is living and active,

sharper than any two edged sword.”

God's Word, the Bible, the Scripture, is the sword Jesus has given to you, and to me, to go on the offensive against the devil. Do you remember when Jesus was being tempted by the devil in the wilderness? Every time a temptation came His way, what did Jesus do? He would say,

“It is written...”.

Then, He would go right to the truth of what God's Word said, and He used it as an offensive weapon against the devil.

For those of you who are younger, there is maybe a movie you saw. The movie came out ten years ago. It is the movie entitled, “Three Hundred”. If you are little bit older, there was a movie that came out in the early 1960's that was entitled, “Three Hundred Spartans”. Both of those movies are referring to the same event. It is an event that happened in 480 BC. What happened in 480 BC is something known as The Battle of Thermopylae. In that battle, these two groups were going against each other. It was the Persians and the Greeks.

The Persians were led by Xerxes. There are differing accounts, but one account says there were up to a million soldiers. Another account says at least a couple hundred thousand soldiers were fighting for Persia, fighting for Xerxes.

On the other hand, for the Greeks, they were led by Leonidas. Leonidas started out with three hundred Spartans. He picked up a few people on the way, so he may have had a couple thousand people on his side.

A few hundred thousand (the Persians), against a couple of thousand, (the Greeks).

Well, the Greeks were defending a small passageway in Thermopylae. This is the way they went about their battle in this narrow passage. (Thinking about the armor from our text for today), they would line up in their battle gear. They would have their shields in their left hand, and when they made a line, all the enemy could see was their shields. Behind their shield they had their spear. When the Persians came to attack, they would reach out with the spear, and they put many of the Persians to death. There were tens of thousands of people who were falling. Even though there were just a few thousand who were waging war.

Dear Christian friends, you are the one who is being attacked. In our text for today, it is describing a battle that is taking place in your life, in which the devil is attacking you.

There was once a pastor who said this. (I am going to read this quote a couple of times, for us to understand what he said.)

“A person who does not understand the nature of the problem they are confronting, is a person who is already doomed to failure.”

Again,

“A person who does not understand the nature of the problem they are confronting, is a person who is already doomed to failure.”

Here is what he likens it to. He likens it to a first year college student who thinks college is going to be easy. Every class is going to be easy, and you don't need to study.

Well, if a first year college student goes in to college thinking that way, what is going to happen, when the examination is placed before them? Things are not going to go very well. It is probably going to be a failure.

And so, this pastor went on to say, “The first thing you have to do is to understand the nature, and the character of your problem.” That is what a first year college student has to do. They have to understand the nature, and the character of the problem they are up against.

I will contend that we need to understand the nature, and the character of the problem we are up against.

-The nature, and the character of the problem we are up against is our very own sin.

-The nature, and the character of the problem we are facing is the devil who is attacking us.

Just think about this for a moment. Think about how effective the devil is in his attack against us. When the devil came into The Garden of Eden, and he was attacking, and going into battle against Adam and Eve, understand who they were. They were perfect. They were perfect, and yet the devil, in his battle against them, was able to defeat them.

When the devil comes, and attacks us, we should not be surprised how effective he is against us, because we are sinful. If the devil could chew up, and spit out Adam and Eve, we shouldn't be surprised if the devil can chew up, and spit us out, as well.

You see, Adam and Eve's problem was they thought they could do it on their own, without help. They thought they could do it without God.

Here is the comforting thing. We have a Brother who is more powerful than the devil. We have a Savior who is more powerful than the devil. He showed that by His death on the cross. On the cross, Jesus defeated the devil. He defeated sin. He forgives our sin, and He gives us eternal life in Heaven.

Jesus has won the victory for you, and me. Jesus has won the battle. And now, He gives you armor, to protect yourself against the assault of the devil, but also to go on the offensive with The Word of God.

Here is where I am going to add the 'plus one'. The 'plus one' at the end of our text is really talking about communication. It says, “Pray.” And so, here is what the Apostle Paul says.

“...pray in the Spirit with every kind of prayer and petition.”

Then, he goes on to say,

“Pray for me also, that when I open my mouth a message will be given to me that boldly reveals the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may speak about it boldly, as it is necessary for me to speak.”

Notice what the Apostle Paul does not say. He is in chains. He is in prison. He doesn't ask to be released from prison. But, he says, “Pray that I may speak God's Word boldly.”
I have shared this with you before, but it is worth repeating to you today. As I go, and visit shut in members in their homes, as I visit home bound members, it is not uncommon for me to hear from them, “Pastor, I want you to know I am praying for you. I am praying for your family. I am praying for the ministry of Holy Cross.”

You know what? That empowers me. It emboldens me. At first, I think I am going there to help them, but almost always, when I leave I think, “Wow, they really built me up so I can boldly continue to proclaim the Word of God”, just as the Apostle Paul is talking about in our text for today.

Dear friends in Christ, God has redeemed you. He has redeemed you through the blood of Christ. And having redeemed you through the blood of Christ, He doesn't just leave you to fend for yourself, but He gives you armor. He gives you the armor of God to defend yourself against the assaults of the devil. And, He gives you an offensive weapon, which is the Spirit of Truth, which is The Word of God.

Let's make every use of the armor of God, which God has given to us, to defend ourselves, but also proclaim that Jesus is the Savior of the world!

Amen