SCRIPTURE:
(Ephesians 6:10-20)
INTRO:
Imagine for a moment you're sitting in front of your TV screen. All ready to watch the NFL football game. You have tall glass of iced cold tea with little droplets of condensation running down the side and pooling on your coaster. A bowl of nacos with a smaller bowl of cheese dip right beside it. A plate of homemade hot wings with a mountain of ranch dressing in the middle. You are ready of a great game. You look up as the Cleveland Browns take the field. They're fully dressed in their uniforms helmets you could tell by their looks they have all their safety equipment, their pads they are ready for the game. As the camera scans to the other side you see the Cincinnati bagels. However, they are all dressed in street clothes, some are wearing shorts and T-shirts, some are even in sports coats, dress pants, and dress shoes.
I think that would make for an exciting game, however would you agree with me the bagels probably would lose even against the Browns. They just would not be equipped to play the game. There would be more injuries. Just because they don't have the right equipment. They would have failed to suit up for the game. Which would leave them vulnerable.
The same is true for us as Christians, if we failed to suit up for the game of life we will be left vulnerable and open to all kinds of injuries. That is why Paul the apostle here in the book of Ephesians tells us to put on the whole armor of God. Not just part of the Armor but the whole Armor of God. In the next few weeks we will be looking at each and every piece of this Armor and today I would just us to look at three vital elements of this Armor.
Main Idea --> Dress for Real Success
First command the Paul gives us is found in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 14 here he says staying there for, having on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness.
So his first command is for us to put on the belt of truth.
I don't know about you but I'm a belt guy. I have three or four different belts and I wear them according to which pants I'm wearing. For being a belt is both functional and decorative. But not so for the Roman soldier that Paul is using is this illustration. The belt was a vital part of their equipment. It was not ornamental it served as the central purpose. It would be used to gather up the short tunic and to keep the breastplate in place. It was also from the belt but the scabbard which held their sword. Without the belt they were not prepared for battle.
The belt would be tied tightly around the waist indicated the soldier was prepared for action ready for battle. To slacken the belt was to go off duty.
As Maxie Dunnam points out, "The imagery here is that truth holds together all other virtues and makes them effectual.”
When we get slack with the truth, we are not prepared for the battle of life.
When we put with the belt of truth we as Christians understand we are accepting the truth of the Bible, without qualification, without alteration, without addition, and without subtraction. We state that we understand and are accepting the truth of the Bible and are choosing to follow it with integrity.
Truth does not need updating. There is a story of a man who came to his old friend, a music teacher, and said to him, “What’s the good news today?” The old teacher was silent as he stood up and walked across the room, picked up a hammer, and struck a tuning fork. As the note sounded out through the room, he said, “That is A. It is today; it was five thousand years ago, and it will be ten thousand years from now. The soprano upstairs sings off-key, the tenor across the hall flats on his high notes, and the piano downstairs is out of tune.” He struck the note again and said, “That is A, my friend, and that’s the good news for today.”
Paul not only tells us to put on the belt of truth, but he tells us we also need to put on the breastplate of righteousness.
His second command is Put on breastplate of righteousness.
Ephesians 6:14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
The “breastplate” (thōrax) covered the body from the neck to the thighs. Polybius tells us that it was known as a heart-protector. Usually it was made of bronze but the more affluent officers wore a coat of chain mail.
As the purpose of a breastplate is to guard the most vital parts of the body, so the Christian protects himself by righteousness. When persons are clothed with righteousness, they are impregnable.
Passions are redeemed and redirected. Do not forget that righteousness, as Paul sees it, is first of all a gift. God, through the Cross, imputes righteousness; that is, He looks at us as though we were without sin. The imputed righteousness of God is appropriated by our faithful and obedient response to Him. Thus we are regenerated—made over into new creations by Christ dwelling within us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our passions, then, are redirected. The drives and instincts of our lives move under the sway of the indwelling Christ.
Also, Death loses its sting. The most devastating aspect of death is our fear of it, especially our fear of what lies beyond death in the mysterious abyss of eternity. When we accept the grace of God, extravagantly given us in the Cross of Jesus Christ, death is defeated. We know that He who gave himself in Christ holds our future and beyond death we have nothing to fear.
The Chinese character for “righteousness” is most interesting. It is composed of two separate characters—one standing for a lamb, the other for me. When “lamb” is placed directly above “me,” a new character—“righteousness” is formed.
This is a helpful picture of the grace of God. Between me, the sinner, and God, the Holy One, there is interposed by faith the Lamb of God. By virtue of his sacrifice, he has received me on the ground of faith, and I have become righteous in his sight.
We are not fully dressed for the battle life with just the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness, he says we also need to put on the shoes of the gospel.
Look with me at Ephesians 615 "and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace."
The caligal or military boots, was one of the most important parts of the Roman soldier’s equipment. They were designed for marches over every kind of tough terrain. It has been said that the attention given to soldiers’ boots was the secret of Roman conquest.
Josephus described them as “shoes thickly studded with sharp nails” (War VI.1.8) so as to ensure a good grip. The military successes both of Alexander the Great and of Julius Caesar were due in large measure to their armies’ being well shoed and thus able to undertake long marches at incredible speed over rough terrain.
With the shoes of the gospel the believer is prepared for all difficulties. The gospel gives us the stability of sure footing. We can march over the rough terrain of life, over the mountain passes of excruciating pain, through deserts of fear and terror, without falling out.
However, the shoes of the gospel were not just for us but we need to be ready to carry the gospel any- and everywhere. The prophetic message of Isaiah 52:7 must have been in Paul’s mind.
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings, who publishes peace, who brings good tidings of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’” (Is. 52:7, RSV).
Charles Spurgeon in his sermon, “Shoes for Pilgrims and Warriors said, “Now, he who marches meets with stones, or if as a warrior he dashes into the thick of the conflict he is assailed with weapons, and therefore he needs to be shod suitably, to meet his perils. The active and energetic Christian meets with temptations which do not happen to others. Idle persons can scarcely be said to be in danger, they are a stage beyond that, and are already overcome.”
We need to be ready to share the Gospel, the entire Gospel.
When the International Congress on World Evangelization met at Lausanne in 1974, it stressed the social implications of the gospel as well as man’s personal need to trust Christ.
In one of the major conference addresses, Sr. Michael Creen said, “Evangelism is the church’s first priority. But you cannot isolate the preaching of good news without destroying the good news itself.… The end of Acts 5 brings us almost to revival situation in Jerusalem … and then comes Acts 6 with a little matter of social justice and fellowship.
“They could have so easily brushed it aside and said, ‘Don’t fuss about the widows. Let’s get on with the preaching. That is what matters.’ If they had done that, God’s Spirit would have been grieved, the fellowship would have been ruined.”
As soldiers in Christ army we are to wear the belt of truth the breastplate of righteousness and the shoes of the gospel. But that alone does not prepare us for battle we also need the shield of faith
We need to Take Up the Shield of Faith
Look at Ephesians 6:16 "In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one"
One of the most dangerous weapons of ancient warfare was the fiery dart or arrow. The heads of the darts or arrows would be wrapped with flax or hemp fiber, soaked in pitch, then set afire before they were thrown or shot. A wooden shield could be set afire by them. For that reason, the shields were covered with a layer of animal hide and were large enough to protect the whole body. Even though the dart may pierce the shield, the fire would be quenched by the hide, which was soaked in water before the battle.
What a picture for us! Faith is a shield, guarding the believer against all attacks. Attacks from both invisible and visible enemies. We as followers of Jesus Christ live by faith. We do not look at our faith glibly, because we realize our faith in Christ alone is able to extinguish the fiery darts of Satan.
We live by faith and we tell others of that faith.
Blaise Pascal, one of history’s greatest scientists, was not converted through his scientific queries. Rather, when the scientist’s carriage was once suspended on a bridge and the man was hanging between life and death, the only thing Pascal could think of was the Christian conviction of his sister and her witness of Christ.
Pascal was the inventor of the barometer. He was brilliant as a philosophical scientist. But the one thing that kept piercing his heart till he surrendered his all to Christ was the Christian witness of his sister.
CONCLUSION:
Are you dressed for the inevitable battle of life? We will all face it, the stones of disappointment, the arrows of despair, the flaming darts of lies told about us. They will come when we least expect it, but, mark my word, they will come. When they come to you will you be prepared? Will you have onl the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, and will you have taken up the shield of faith?
This morning if you are not dressed for battle, and you would like to be, please join me in this prayer.
PRAYER
Dear Jesus, I confess that I have failed you in the past, I have followed my own path in life, and I am truly sorry. I asked for your forgiveness today. I ask you to dress me in your armor. Help me to put on the belt of truth so I will not fall for the lies of the enemy. Help me to put on the breastplate of righteousness, and prepare me with the shoes of the gospel of peace. Give me the courage this morning to take up the shield of faith. Forgive me of all my sins, Amen.
