EPHESIANS 6:13-17 - The Armor of the LORD

Introduction

This past April 19th saw the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the American War for Independence, when “the shot heard round the world” was fired at Battle of Concord. British troops, acting on intelligence they had received about a supply of arms and ammunition, were met at the Old North Bridge in Concord and were forced to retreat after they were engaged by four hundred militia members, nicknamed “Minutemen” because of their training and preparedness that allowed them to muster for battle within 60 seconds.

At the end of the Old North Bridge today there stands a bronze statue of a minuteman, holding a musket, turning away from the plow he had been working at as he joins the battle.

That image of readiness for battle at a moment’s notice is reflected in Paul’s call to his readers in the first verse of our text this morning:

Ephesians 6:13 LSB

Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

This verse tells us to be ready to resist “in the evil day”—in the days and times when the Enemy of our souls will bring his attacks. The Scriptures indicate that while Satan always wants to destroy and devour and ruin God’s people, there are times when his attacks will be particularly fierce—you’ll recall that after the Devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness that he left Him “until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). You may have noticed this in your own Christian walk—there are times of quiet and peace in your battles with the world, the flesh and the Devil, but then there seem to be seasons when everything breaks loose at once and you are beset on every side with the “schemes of the Devil”.

Like the colonial minutemen who were ready at a moment’s notice to go into battle, Christian, you must be ready at all times—and the only way to resist in that evil day is to be found in the “whole armor of God”.

William Gurnall, the Puritan pastor and author, wrote a three-volume work on these verses in Ephesians, called The Christian In Complete Armour. In that book, he wrote this:

In heaven we shall appear not in armour but in robes of glory; but here they (sc. the pieces of armour specified) are to be worn night and day; we must walk, work and sleep in them, or else we are not true soldiers of Christ.’ In this armour we are to stand and watch, and never relax our vigilance, for ‘the saint’s sleeping time is Satan’s tempting time… (Quoted in Stott, J. R. W. (1979). God’s new society: the message of Ephesians (p. 276). InterVarsity Press.)

So I want us to spend our time this morning understanding this armor that we are being called to live in. The verses before us this morning are calling you, Christian, to

Be READY in the ARMOR of God until you can REST in the PRESENCE of God

We will be able to stand in the evil day that comes upon us when we stand ready in the armor that God has provided for us. As Paul describes these six pieces of armor in these verses, he uses some of the common terms for Roman armor that his readers in Ephesus would be intimately familiar with. And so we will look at them one at a time this morning.

You will face and stand firm against any cruel scheme of the Evil One when you are found in the armor of God—Ephesians 6:14 tells you to

Ephesians 6:14 LSB

Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth

Standing ready in the armor of God means first of all

I. Being HELD TOGETHER by truth (Ephesians 6:14a)

The belt that a soldier wore in the First Century was in some ways the most important part of his armor, because it held the rest of the articles together, kept the soldier’s weapon, and kept his tunic up out of the way so that he could run and move and fight effectively.

How are you bound together by truth, Christian? There are at least two ways we can think of. First of all, you will stand ready for battle in the evil day when you are bound by

The truth that GOD has REVEALED in Christ (cp. Eph. 4:21; John 1:9)

Paul has made reference to the power of truth in the Christian life several times in this letter:

Ephesians 4:21 LSB

if indeed you heard Him and were taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus,

and John’s Gospel opens with a declaration of the power of the truth revealed in Christ:

John 1:9 LSB

There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens everyone.

Christian, live your life in the truth of what God has revealed in Christ, and the lies and schemes of the Devil will not overtake you. His first and fundamental lie (which he has been repeating ever since the Garden of Eden) is, “Did God really say...?” But in Christ you can answer, “Yes—He really did say! He said everything He needed to say when He spoke His Final Word to the world—Jesus Christ! He is the way, the truth and the life, and the only way to come to the Father is through Him!

You will be held together in the evil day of Satan’s schemes against you when you stand on the truth that God has revealed in Christ. And when you are bound together by the true revelation of God and how you are reconciled to Him through Christ, it is seen in

The truth of the LIFE that you LIVE for Christ (cp. Ps. 51:6)

Christian, you are bound by truth. Your life is marked by integrity, inside and out. You are the same person when you are by yourself that you are when others are watching. The words that come out of your mouth are consistent with the words and thoughts of your heart. Even when it would be easy or expedient to shade the truth or twist it or edit it, you have the Spirit of Christ dwelling within you that enables you to speak the whole truth.

Psalm 51:6 LSB

Behold, You delight in truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.

SO many of Satan’s schemes and traps and tricks start off with getting you to massage the truth—but because you are bound together by the truth of Christ’s life in you, Christian, you have in Him the ability to not only speak the truth, but live it out.

Christian, being ready in the armor of God means you are being held together by truth, and it means

II. Being PROTECTED by righteousness (Ephesians 6:14b)

Look at the rest of verse 14:

Ephesians 6:14 LSB

Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

One of the most devastating attacks of Satan are his accusations that you are a terrible Christian because you still struggle with sin. If there is any attack that pierces right to your heart, as it were, it is his slander that says “God is disgusted with your lack of righteousness… He is tired of forgiving you for these sins that you keep going back to...”

Christian, you will be defended against those slanders when you put on the breastplate of righteousness—when you come to understand that

You live JUSTIFIED in Christ (cp. Rom. 8:1)

To put on the breastplate of righteousness means to put on the justification that Christ purchased for you on the Cross! When the Apostle Paul was overwhelmed with the demands of the Law of God that revealed his sinfulness, he cried out in Romans 7:24

Romans 7:24 LSB

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?

But then he turns from the despair over his struggles with sin and embraces the righteousness he has been given in Christ:

Romans 8:1 LSB

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Yes, in this life you struggle with sin; yes, Satan will attack you over and over again, accusing you of being a hypocrite because you are not perfectly righteous. And your response must always be, “Yes, you’re right—I have no righteousness of my own. AT. ALL. I am nothing but sin and wickedness. Truer words were never spoken—

“BUT I HAVE BEEN CLOTHED WITH THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST HIMSELF!”

And it is not my own righteous works, it is not my perfect score on the holiness obstacle course, it is not my own efforts at piety or perfection that get me anywhere. I am righteous in God’s sight because CHRIST GAVE ME HIS ARMOR TO WEAR.”

The breastplate of righteousness, Christian, is Christ’s own perfections that He has given you to armor yourself against Satan’s attacks. At the same time, there is another sense in which you are protected by righteousness. And that is when

You live UPRIGHT in this world

The justification that you have from Christ means that you stand righteous before God’s holy judgment. And nothing can take that away from you. And as Christ dwells in you by faith, granting you that righteousness before God, He also produces in you a love for living uprightly in this world.

When Christ’s righteousness dwells in you, it will bear the fruit of righteousness in your day to day life. And that daily walk in the fruit of that justification (love, joy peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, self-control) will result in a life that is above suspicion.

So many of Satan’s attacks come about because he can successfully plant a plausible lie in someone’s mind about you. Satan is an accuser, and accusation is one of his favorite weapons. But when you are living upright in this world because of the righteousness of Christ that you display, accusations tend not to stick to you!

A slander that says you are a drunkard or have cheated on your spouse or stolen from work are greeted by people who know you with a horse-laugh, because anyone who knows you knows that it is inconceivable for you to be guilty of that kind of wickedness. As John Stott writes in his commentary about this verse,

The completeness of pardon for past offence and the integrity of character that belong to the justified life, are woven together into an impenetrable mail. (Stott, J. R. W. (1979). God’s new society: the message of Ephesians (p. 279). InterVarsity Press.)

Being ready in the armor of God means that you are held together by truth, you are protected by righteousness. And as we go further through our text in Verse 15, we see that it means

III. Being READY to STAND on the Gospel (Ephesians 6:15)

Ephesians 6:15 LSB

and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

When you are standing ready in the armor of God in this dark world, Christian, you have

A FIRM FOOTING for your life (cp. John 14:27)

The “Good News of Peace” in your life is that you are at peace with the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe! What greater footing can someone have in this world than to know that they are at peace with God? We live in an hour when our society is struggling with a crushing load of guilt before God that it does not want to acknowledge. And to live in that unacknowledged guilt and shame is to live a life that has no peace.

But Christian, you have a peace that “passes all understanding”—you are able to walk through the tumult of this world without worry or fear or anxiety because you have peace with God! Your Savior has equipped you with His peace—not as the world gives peace; He gives it abundantly and continuously:

John 14:27 LSB

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

This is the gift of your Savior to you, Christian—a firm footing of peace through the Gospel. And as you live your life in that peace, your life becomes

An OFFER of PEACE for the world (cp. Isa 52:7)

Paul borrows his image here in this verse from Isaiah 52:7

Isaiah 52:7 LSB

How lovely on the mountains Are the feet of him who proclaims good news, Who announces peace And proclaims good news of good things, Who announces salvation, And says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

As Christ has made peace with you by the blood of His Cross, you are now able to share that peace with others! To be an “ambassador of reconciliation” as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:20, we are

2 Corinthians 5:20 LSB

...ambassadors for Christ, as God is pleading through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

The Evil One hates this announcement of a peace treaty between God and man through Christ—he began a war between God and man in the Garden of Eden, and the Gospel is the means by which God is bringing about the end of that war.

And so when you demonstrate that you have made peace with his mortal Enemy in your life, he will do whatever he can to disrupt it; when you share the Good News of the Gospel of peace, he wants to discredit it. And so that means he is going to come after you. And so, Paul says, prepare to stand firm in that evil day as you put on the armor of God,

IV. Being SHIELDED in faith (Ephesians 6:16; cp. Psalm 18:30)

Ephesians 6:16 LSB

In addition to all, having taken up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one,

You have an ancient and mighty enemy, more crafty and intelligent than any mortal, who has spent six thousand years studying his craft with one singular purpose—destroy God’s image bearers on earth, especially those who have received His offer of eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Satan will scheme any way he can to take you out of this fight; to wound you so fiercely that you want to turn and run. He will fire his arrows of accusation and guilt against you; he will make you burn with shame over your past in order to prove to you that you can’t possibly even be a Christian.

But taking up that shield of faith against those fiery darts means that you are

Holding to the PROMISES of God (Ps. 18:30)

for you. As the psalmist sang in Psalm 18:30

Psalm 18:30 LSB

As for God, His way is blameless; The word of Yahweh is tried; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.

Satan may want to throw you into doubt or confusion or despair because of your battles with sin—but God is faithful! He can be trusted! When God tells you

John 6:37 LSB

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out.

You can trust Him! When He says

Romans 8:1 LSB

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

You can trust that promise! When Jesus promises you in John 10:28-29

John 10:28–29 LSB

and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish—ever; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

He is telling you the truth!

When Satan’s attacks come from the outside—the trials and heartbreaks and frustrations and weakness and disappointments and temptations of this world seem to be raining down on you like fiery darts, Christian, taking up the shield of faith means

Trusting in the POWER of God (cp. 1 John 5:4; Isa 41:10)

As the Apostle John wrote in his first letter:

1 John 5:4 LSB

For everything that has been born of God overcomes the world; and this is the overcoming that has overcome the world—our faith.

And as Paul writes in Romans 8:38-39

Romans 8:38–39 LSB

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Take up the shield of faith against all of those attacks, Christian—many a conflict, many a doubt, fightings and fears within, without—you can believe the promises and power of God as your shield!

Isaiah 41:10 LSB

‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will make you mighty, surely I will help you; Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

Now, what happens when you are taking up that shield day by day; when you are trusting in the promises and power of God to cause you to stand amidst the evil day of Satan’s schemes and arrows? Paul says in verse 17 that there is another piece of armor that you have been given:

Ephesians 6:17 LSB

also receive the helmet of salvation...

Paul refers to salvation as a helmet again in 1 Thessalonians 5:8

1 Thessalonians 5:8 LSB

...having put on.... as a helmet, the hope of salvation.

Protecting a soldier’s head is one of the most crucial functions of the armor—a head wound or a blow to the head can knock you off your feet, can jeopardize your ability to think clearly or fight effectively. And as we’ve seen, Satan loves to play “head-games” with us, doesn’t he? And so God’s Word calls us to put on the “helmet of the hope of our salvation”—

V. Being CONFIDENT of victory (Ephesians 6:17a)

in this battle! As Satan fires his accusations and slanders against you, telling you that you are a failure of a Christian and that you are a disappointment to God, put on the helmet of your salvation because

It is your PRESENT hope cp. (Phil. 1:6)

The salvation you have in Christ means that God has determined to perfect you in holiness! Your salvation means that He is saving you from the power of sin in your life! And it means that He will never give up on you! Indeed, Christian, God’s Word calls you to be

Philippians 1:6 LSB

...Confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Do you feel like giving up in your Christian walk, beloved? God will never give up on you! The salvation that you possess in Christ is your present hope through the battlefields of this life, and God’s Word promises that

It is your ULTIMATE hope (1 Peter 1:3-5)

Listen to the magnificent promise of your salvation as Peter writes about it in his first epistle:

1 Peter 1:3–5 LSB

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, having been kept in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Christian—fill your mind with the incorruptible, undefiled and unfading inheritance of holiness and glory and joy that is being kept for you as you are protected by the power of God! Fill your spirit with the hope of that salvation that will finally be revealed in all of its fulness when you awaken in His glorious presence, and the schemes of Satan will bounce harmlessly off of that hope!

Be ready in the armor of God until that day when you can rest forever in the presence of God—held together by truth, protected by righteousness, ready to stand on the Gospel, shielded by faith, confident of victory, and finally

VI. Being ARMED with the Word (Ephesians 6:17b)

Ephesians 6:17 LSB

also receive the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,

It is no coincidence that Paul’s description of the whole armor of God begins and ends with the Word of God—it is the belt that holds your armor together and it is the sword that you wield in the battle.

Christian, this is your weapon for spiritual warfare! Not special prayers of power or declarations or "taking authority” or “binding” or “rebuking” of demons or any other such nonsense. The divinely-ordained weapon for you to fight and win this war, Christian, is God’s inspired and all-sufficient Word. Search this list of armor as closely as you will—this is the only weapon you have been issued!

When you are armed with the Word of God, Christian, you have

A sword to DEFEAT LIES with (cp. 2 Cor. 10:4-5)

This is the weapon that Paul is writing about in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 when he writes that

2 Corinthians 10:4–5 LSB

for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the tearing down of strongholds, as we tear down speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,

You will sometimes have an unbeliever insist that you don’t appeal to the Bible in your defense of the faith because he doesn’t believe it’s authority. But the fact is, you do! And you will get nowhere with them by dropping the only weapon you have! But sustained, faithful trust in the power of God’s Word is the means by which God’s Spirit will throw down every objection and speculation against the Gospel!

But the important thing to remember is that in order to see the effectiveness of this Sword to defeat lies, you must wield it! When this Word is ready on your lips because it has filled your heart, when you are guided by the wisdom that comes from regularly meditating on it and cherishing it, then it will do its work to defeat the lies you battle.

Make no mistake—this Sword will not defeat lies that you encounter if it has not first defeated your lies. Until this weapon has torn down every lofty thing raised up in your heart against the knowledge of God, until this Word has taken your every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, you cannot expect it to do so for others.

And so while this Word is a sword to defeat lies with, it is also

A sword to PIERCE YOURSELF with (cp. Heb 4:12)

The author of Hebrews tells you that

Hebrews 4:12 LSB

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

One element that works in Satan’s favor in this war is how hard it is to discern what is in our own hearts. On our own, we are sitting in a fishing boat with no lights in the middle of a lake in the fog at midnight on a new moon. We are hopelessly bad at discerning the state of our own hearts; we can be rotting away in gangrenous sin and tell ourselves we’re doing fine. We can be faithfully following Christ, hating sin and loving Him and be utterly convinced that we are Hell-bound hypocrites.

The only way to know the truth about yourself is to pierce your own heart with this Word! This sword will judge the thoughts and intentions of your heart more reliably than anything or anyone else! This is your only reliable guide; read it, cherish it, seek out its wisdom, commit it to memory, take every opportunity you can to hear it faithfully taught and preached, believe what it says and put it into practice. The only hope you have of standing firm in the evil day of Satan’s onslaughts is to hold to the promises and warnings and encouragements of this Word!

You are engaged in a warfare with an ancient enemy; he is full of deceit and trickery, and he is an expert in human nature. He knows a thousand ways to make you fall, he has no end of schemes to neutralize your Christian walk and witness for Christ. Look around you and you will see the remains of hundreds of Christian testimonies that have been hamstrung by sin and gutted by hypocrisy. He knows what he is doing, and you have absolutely no chance to stand against him.

He will have you unless you take up this armor. He will utterly destroy you—body, spirit and soul—unless you are clothed in the armor of God won for you by Jesus Christ.

We mentioned earlier that the Apostle Paul described armor that his readers in Ephesus would have understood well from the ever-present Roman soldiers stationed in their city. But there is another image that I believe Paul was drawing on—the image in the Old Testament of YHWH Himself strapping on armor in order to save His people!

Isaiah 59:15–17 LSB

Then Yahweh saw, And it was evil in His eyes that there was no justice. And He saw that there was no man, And was astonished that there was no one to intercede; Then His own arm brought salvation to Him, And His righteousness upheld Him. He put on righteousness like a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head; And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.

In that passage, YHWH was strapping on His armor of righteousness, salvation and vengeance in order to rescue His people from their sin! He went to war against the evil that had consumed them—the evil of their own wickedness and rebellion:

Isaiah 59:12–13 LSB

For our transgressions are multiplied before You, And our sins answer against us; For our transgressions are with us, And we know our iniquities: Transgressing and denying Yahweh, And turning back from our God, Speaking oppression and revolt, Conceiving in and uttering from the heart lying words.

And when YHWH went out to do battle with our sin, He did it by dying on the Cross in human flesh! And in doing so, He crushed forever the power of that ancient enemy of your soul, the Serpent who began this long war in that Garden so long ago. For everyone who turns from their sin and pleads for the forgiveness that Christ purchased on that Cross has been set free from the power of Satan, and has inherited the very armor of YHWH to wear in all your battles against him!

You are not like David, unable to fight the giant in the king’s armor that does not suit you—you are protected by His righteousness, ready to stand for His Gospel, shielded by faith in His promises, confident of the victory He has won, and armed with His Word when you come—and welcome!—to Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

1 Timothy 6:15–16 LSB

And now to Him who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal might! Amen.

ADDITIONAL NOTES: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________