“…and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace…”
The footwear of the Roman soldier was of special design. It was a sandal; more specifically, a thick leather sole that was held on by straps. It was also studded on the bottom so the Soldier could better keep his balance and his footing in a slippery place, or when climbing and of course, when fighting.
If Paul was thinking about these characteristics as he wrote, and used the soldier’s footwear to illustrate the Gospel message, it should provide some thought-provoking application for us.
Notice again the order. Put on truth, then guard the heart against error with that truth and appropriate righteousness to yourself with the spiritual breastplate that is right standing before God through faith in the gospel. Now, before going on to talk about faith and the sword, which is the Word of God, he exhorts to be prepared and moving forward with the gospel of peace.
I want to make something clear before passing on from here. I don’t know if any other commentators would disagree with me in my use of the phrase, ‘moving forward’. Paul doesn’t actually say that in our text. He says to stand. And I have to assume that there might be some out there who would say, ‘well, you’re misapplying the analogy. Paul says to stand, but nothing about marching’. So I just want to point out that the soldiers Paul was talking about; who were a part of his life’s experience, did indeed move out, to conquer and bring home the spoils.
I do not think there can be any doubt that Christ’s intention for His church was that it would move forward aggressively against the schemes of the enemy, in order to save many with the gospel message.
In truth, to approach his admonition to stand as though he only means to not fall down, is in itself a misapplication of the analogy. Far too many in the church, indeed, far too many churches, are so busy just trying to stand that they never get forward inertia going.
And I don’t want to get ridiculous with this analogy, but someone standing still and flat-footed is easier to knock down than someone who is moving forward. Food for thought.
I want to focus more sharply on this idea of preparedness now.
PREPAREDNESS
Paul says to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Preparation for what? Well, for going out, and preparation for what lies ahead. Again, I want to point out that by way of order, he puts this before the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit.
In a nutshell, if we’re not standing firm, as he has admonished us to do, if we’re not moving forward, there isn’t much use for the rest of the armor, is there?
No need to be concerned about the enemy’s fiery missiles, if you’re no threat to him. And no need for protection of the head, if your head is kept under cover at home. No need for a sword, if you’ll never be in blade’s reach of the enemy.
In what way are we prepared then, and against what?
One of the purposes of the thick leather soles of their sandals, and the studs in them, was to protect against what we might think of as ‘ancient land mines’.
Enemy forces that knew the Roman legions were coming would anticipate their route of travel and plant small, sharp steaks just under the surface of the dirt; made of sticks, or bamboo, or iron nails and so forth.
If an infantryman has a wounded foot, he’s not much good for marching. And if that injury is serious or gets infected he will be out of the battle altogether. So the feet had to be protected.
‘SHOD’ WITH THE GOSPEL
Remember that it is the gospel message we are standing and going in. With. We talked about the gospel message last week.
Jesus Christ shed His blood and died to pay the penalty for our sins, was buried and rose on the third day as was predicted by the Old Testament scriptures, and because He lives He now gives eternal life to all who believe in these things. That’s the gospel.
So staying with Paul’s analogy, if there are dangers to that message, if there are spikes and snares in our way, then they must be beliefs and philosophies that are contrary to that basic message.
We’ve talked on this subject in several different sermons of late; and I might add here that while driving in the car I’ve even heard several radio preachers addressing the same issue.
One of the greatest enemies of the church, and one that has been around from the very beginning, is heretical doctrine. It must be guarded against with great watchfulness; with tenacity; it must be preached against and whenever possible headed off in advance, by sound teaching.
Like I said, we’ve had occasion lately to discuss some of these errors, these vain philosophies and empty deceptions (Col 2:8). So I don’t want to get into explaining gnosticism and Epicureanism and stoicism or any of the other isms today.
What I believe is important for us to shed some light on as pertains to our text, is that the enemies of the gospel are not always found coming at us from outside of the church.
In fact, the real enemies are not these philosophies of worldly thinking I listed a moment ago. Because you see, as Christians we should be taught what those things are, and the history of them so that we recognize them in society around us and guard our own hearts against the tendency to let them creep into our thinking and lifestyle.
But the real dangers to the Christian and therefore to the church, are the ones that are more subtle, and come up out of the ranks of evangelical Christianity. Those are the ones that vitiate the message of the cross and weaken the cause of the gospel.
And what makes them so dangerous and so destructive, is that they often sound right and good. They come disguised in attractive Christian vernacular; and sometimes so subtly that it’s hard to catch, they appeal to the desires of the flesh, so people just swallow them up.
Some of you might remember the story I’ve told of the guy with the hound dog. He had old golf balls laying around, and he’d call the dog out of sleep, toss a golf ball and the dog would just swallow it whole. No chewing, no tasting involved; he’d just swallow it and look happy like he’d just received a treat.
When asked if it didn’t cause digestive tract problems, the guy just shrugged and said, “Nah, they always come out later”.
I think a lot of Christians see what looks like what might be a teaching they’d like heading their way, and without stopping to test it or examine it in any way, they just gulp it down like a golf ball and go their way thinking they’ve been blessed.
Difference is, once it’s in it causes problems.
So my admonition to you, believer, is to not be too quick to accept what you hear, just because the preacher is handsome like me, or has a great speaking voice, or is telling you something that sounds good to the ear.
And remember that false doctrines do not always sound ridiculous.
I am blessed to have a congregation of people who know that God does not promise health and wealth in this life if only you have faith and/or do the right kind of religious calisthenics. But I will give you warning that error can begin with seemingly benign, insignificant assertions about some vague, obscure passage of scripture, and with that tiny seed planted can take root and begin a very destructive work just under the surface.
If not uprooted it can eventually become a very destructive force and completely out of control. Most of you know of the sometimes heated debates and disagreements that have arisen over the past couple of years in the Southern Baptist Convention, over the acceptance of the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message to replace the 1973 Baptist Faith and Message. There’s been a lot of talk and a lot of confusion.
But let me tell you where the rubber meets the road in this whole issue. There would be no debate, except that men and women, called by God to ministry and faithful in their calling, are zealously and jealously defensive of the doctrines that are the foundation of the Christian faith, and therefore, of our denomination. They know that if the smallest seed of error is allowed to creep in, a decade later it can take an entire denomination of churches away from the gospel message.
So they are careful to the extreme, and no slight change in wording is taken lightly.
This is a good thing. It’s not the first time in history that men have hotly debated doctrinal issues, and when Godly men of Godly character and vision have come together to settle an issue, the church and her message are ultimately protected and strengthened.
Christian, every individual believer should be this zealous and jealous of the pure message of Christ and Him crucified. Every believer should have his or her feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and stand firm on it.
Don’t look at numbers. Break free of that trap of the flesh. There is much that a large congregation can do as pertains to programs and missions work and outreach; but every individual born again believer in Christ, prepared with the gospel message and willing to take it to another person has the very power of the Holy Spirit going with them, and nothing of the world of flesh or spirit can resist that power.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, refers to Gideon: “The hosts of Midian had come up, and a large army of about 32,000 was gathered together by Israel. But God reduced that army to a mere handful. Of the 32,000 there were only 300 whom God could trust. He knew these would stand, that they would never quit, that they would never compromise. So He dismissed the rest, and with the little 300, the remnant, He discomfited and routed the hosts of Midian. God has always done His greatest work through a remnant. Get rid of the notion of numbers. What God wants is a man or a woman who is prepared to ‘stand’, whose feet are ‘shod with the equipment of the gospel of peace’.”
“The Christian Soldier” - D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Baker Books 1977 ‘Stand Fast’
Are you prepared to stand, Christian? Are you confident in what you believe? Are the fundamental doctrines of the faith more than written information to you? Have you seen that they are truths that were imparted to your life the moment you believed, and are they a vital part of your existence? Are they precious to you, enough to protect them zealously and jealously?
Paul told Timothy to be ready to give an accounting for the hope that was in him when asked. We are, each one of us, expected to have the word of God so richly dwelling in us that we can defend our faith against all attacks, and guard our hearts and our church against the most subtle error. Are you prepared, and are you willing to stand?
PEACEMAKERS VS PEACEKEEPERS
“The show went on; many had been slain (in the Roman Colosseum), and the people, madly excited by the desperate bravery of those who continued to fight, shouted their applause. But suddenly there was an interruption. A rudely clad, robed figure appeared for a moment among the audience, and then boldly leaped down into the arena. He was seen to be a man of rough but imposing presence, bareheaded and with sun-browned face. Without hesitating an instant he advanced upon two gladiators engaged in a life-and-death struggle, and laying his hand upon one of them sternly reproved him for shedding innocent blood, and then, turning toward the thousands of angry faces ranged around him, called upon them in a solemn, deep-toned voice which resounded through the deep enclosure. These were his words; ‘Do not requite God’s mercy in turning away the swords of your enemies by murdering each other!’ Angry shouts and cries at once drowned his voice; ‘This is no place for preaching! - the old customs of Rome must be observed!- On gladiators!’ Thrusting aside the stranger, the gladiators would have again attacked each other, but the man stood between, holding them apart, and trying in vain to be heard. ‘Sedition! Sedition! Down with him!’ was then the cry; and the gladiators, enraged at the interference of an outsider with their chosen vocation, at once stabbed him to death. Stones, or whatever missiles came to hand, also rained down upon him from the furious people, and thus he perished, in the midst of the arena.
His dress showed him to be one of the hermits who vowed themselves to a holy life of prayer and self-denial, and who were reverenced by even the thoughtless and combat-loving Romans. The few who knew him told how he had come from the wilds of Asia on a pilgrimage, to visit the churches and keep his Christmas at Rome; they knew he was a holy man, and that his name was Telemachus - no more. His spirit had been stirred by the sight of thousands flocking to see men slaughter one another, and in his simple-hearted zeal he had tried to convince them of the cruelty and wickedness of their conduct. He had died, but not in vain. His work was accomplished at the moment he was struck down, for the shock of such a death before their eyes turned the hearts of the people; they saw the hideous aspects of the favorite vice to which they had blindly surrendered themselves; and from the day Telemachus fell dead in the Colosseum, no other fight of gladiators was ever held there.” (parenthesis mine)
- FOX’S BOOK OF MARTYRS - ‘The Last Roman ‘Triumph’.’ 1970 printing, Zondervan pg 37,38
In Matthew 5:9, early in what we know as the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declared, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God”.
I want to make the point that He didn’t say, ‘Blessed are the peacekeepers’.
Peace keepers are either policemen or politicians. Either keeping the peace by force, or by compromise. These are not the ones Jesus said would be blessed and called sons of God.
Now the United States Marines and other branches of the military have often moved into a region to keep peace. God bless their efforts; we love them all.
And we’re happy we have police forces in our communities to keep peace. We take them for granted. Trust what I say, having been one I know the training and constant refresher training they take, in order to be as prepared and professional as possible when dealing with the public. And I know that in the 18 years I’ve been out of the work they must have developed many more techniques and adjustments to general policies to make them even more prepared and professional in providing for the safety of those of us who count on them. So I commend all of them here, and I know we’re all thankful to have them.
But Jesus didn’t say, “Blessed are the peacekeepers’. He said, “Blessed are the peacemakers’.
The peace makers are those who have their feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And they go forward with that message to make peace between men and God.
In point of fact, sometimes they disturb the peace in making peace. Like Telemachus in the arena.
Read through the book of the Acts of the Apostles, and see how much peace Paul brought with him when he spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. He made peace between God and those who would listen and believe, but most times in the process he got people pretty riled up.
Go to Acts 16 in your Bible reading time and see what happened at Philippi. Paul and Silas are being followed by a demon-possessed woman whose fortune telling has brought much profit to her masters. So when Paul turns and casts the spirit out of her, they get very upset, and get a crowd all stirred up.
Paul and Silas are stripped and beaten with rods and thrown into prison.
People, the gospel message is not for peacekeepers. That is a contradiction. In a Christ-hating world, the proclamation of the Gospel goes absolutely contrary to the idea of keeping peace.
A good example is the recent release of the movie, “The Passion of the Christ”. Remember all of the controversy stirred up over that one?
But let’s go back to Acts 16 for a moment.
About midnight, as Paul and Silas are praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and this with bruises and welts and probably open cuts on their backs, the prisoners are listening.
Then there is an earthquake. The doors are shaken open. Everyone’s chains fall off.
The jailer, thinking everyone has escaped and his pension is out the window, gets ready to kill himself. But Paul calls out and stops him, ensuring him that no one has left. And the jailer says, “What must I do to be saved?” So Paul tells him.
In verse 32 of that chapter we’re told, “And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house.”
And peace is made between God and man.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
MARCHING ON
Christian, the church marches on. Since the day of her birth, when the 120 stepped out of the upper room and began to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, the peacemakers have gone forth, unstoppable, undeterred, turning the world upside down; but making peace between God and men.
This is why I had to make that distinction in the beginning, about the church not only standing, but moving forward.
A stale, unmoving church is a contradiction. A church or a Christian not moving out with the gospel, disturbing people’s peace, upsetting their lives with the truth, is not a biblical church or individual believer.
Search the scriptures and see if you can find any of God’s people suffering, being opposed or rejected, passing through times of trial, for any reason other than being God’s people.
But they were never dormant. They heard the call of God and they went out. Noah built while he preached. Abraham went out, building altars to God along the way. Moses came back from the dessert to insist on the freedom of God’s people. David fought the enemies of God’s people, seeking God’s leading through it all and being established on a throne that eventually the greater David, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah will sit on and reign from.
Counting their lives not precious to themselves the prophets went forth, rejecting the comforts of the world and the siren call of ease, proclaiming warnings of wrath and promises of blessing; the underlying message always being centered in the coming Messiah and Zion’s hope.
The 12 disciples, the original ‘Dead End Kids’, indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit of Christ abandoned their lives for the sake of the gospel and through them it spread like wild fire in high wind, and all the frustrated attempts of Satan himself have never slowed its course.
Christians, sit down with a pen and paper, and before you make a mark, stretch your imagination to think of just one thing about this life and this world that is worth clinging to or giving preeminence over the proclamation of the good news of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.
If you can think of even one, write it down and bring it to me, please. I would like to see what that one thing might be.
But I know you won’t. And I know you wouldn’t want to. Instead, stand confidently, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and as a part of the true church of God, move out to make peace between God and men.
You’ll be disturbing someone’s peace. But there will be those who will hear and rejoice and be glad; and in eternity they’ll thank you.
“How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation, and says to Zion, ‘your God reigns!’.” Isa 52:7
