The Shoes Of Gospel Peace Series

June 13, 2020

With the Belt of Truth holding everything together and the Breastplate of Righteousness protecting our hearts, let us move now to the 3rd piece of combat gear – The Shoes of Gospel Peace.

Why is The Gospel of Peace found in the position of “The Shoes”?

The Roman military “boot” was a heavy sandal with thick soles studded with hollow-headed hob-nails. These “boots” allowed the soldier to stand firmly in battle - and to cross safely over every kind of rough terrain.

Anyone who has walked outside without shoes knows that there are some places you simply cannot go – a Cactus garden for example.

Sometimes, in the summer, when I take the trash to the outside cans, I don’t bother to put on shoes. Between me and the cans are brick pavers, which get extremely hot. I oh!!! and ouch!! and dance about all the way to the can and all the way back again. Shoes are important. They provide us stability and sure-footedness, which gives us the ability to go almost anywhere.

The TYPE of shoe also matters:

• If you’re going to climb Mount Everest you don’t wear high heels – you wear boots with cramp-ons that provide warmth and sure-footedness as you climb through the snow and ice.

• Marathon runners don’t wear flip-flops in a race. They wear running shoes that give them comfort and good support as they run 26.2 miles.

Walking or even standing in the wrong shoes will leave our feet hurting and blistered, so, it is important to wear the right kind of shoes as we navigate life.

Likewise, it is important that we wear the right kind of shoes as we navigate our spiritual life.

Warfare, by definition, is the absence of peace – yet in Ephesians 6 Paul tells us that part of our combat gear holds within it the guarantee of peace. Not just any peace – Gospel Peace.

• Ephesians 6:15 {Amplified Bible} - And having shod your feet in preparation [to face the enemy with the firm-footed stability, the promptness, and the readiness produced by the good news] of the Gospel of peace.

{Greek: ?t??µas?a – het-oy-mas-ee’-ah = foundation, firm-footing, preparation, readiness}

As I have worked through this sermon, I have identified 3 phases of Gospel Peace – Peace with God, Internal Peace, Sharing Peace – all have their foundation in Jesus:

Peace with God

God has never been OUR enemy, but the moment Adam and Eve sinned, we became HIS. When He went searching for them, they ran and hid {Genesis 3:8-9} and we’ve been running ever since. Our natural selves are at war with God and we want nothing to do with Him = NO PEACE.

• Romans 5:8-10 - While we were still sinners…. When we were God's enemies…..

• Romans 8:7 - The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.

• Charles Spurgeon {April 22, 1855} - But, before we enter upon a discussion of the doctrine of the text, observe how strongly the Apostle expresses it. "The carnal mind," he says, "is ENMITY against God." He uses a noun, and not an adjective. He does not say it is opposed to God merely, but it is positive enmity. It is not black, but blackness; it is not at enmity, but enmity itself; it is not corrupt, but corruption; it is not rebellious, it is rebellion; it is not wicked, it is wickedness itself…. {see Jeremiah 17:9}

Nor need we say a word to explain that it is "enmity against God." It does not charge manhood with an aversion merely to the dominion, laws, or doctrines of Jehovah; but it strikes a deeper and surer blow. It does not strike man upon the head; it penetrates into his heart; it lays the axe at the root of the tree, and pronounces him "enmity against God," against the person of the Godhead, against the Deity, against the mighty Maker of this world; not at enmity against his Bible or against his gospel, though that were true, but against God himself, against his essence, his existence, and his person.

Like I said last week, knowing that we would not seek Him, God came in search of us and He did it in the person of Jesus.

• Isaiah 9:6-7 - For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.