Put on the Whole Armor of God
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Intro:
Intro:
Good morning.
This morning I’d like for us to turn to the book of Ephesians.
Our sermon this morning is going to come from the end of the book in chapter 6.
The Christian life is a continuous battle.
We wage warfare in a great spiritual war.
But we need to have no fear, “for the battle belongs to the Lord!”
Paul told the young preacher Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 2:
You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.
And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops.
Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.
Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel,
for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained.
(Again, the Battle belongs to the Lord!)
Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
5. Paul was preparing the preacher Timothy for battle, and the battle would be heated!
a. Christians were being imprisoned!
b. Martyrs were paying the ultimate price of giving their lives for the Lord.
c. In other words, the Devil was hard at work trying to prevent the spread of the Lord’s church!
d. Question: Did it work?
6. Consider how things went after the death of Stephen:
7. (In Acts 7:54-60, after Stephen had preached a fiery sermon very similar to Peter’s sermon from Acts 2, we find the crowd was cut to the heart, gnashed on Stephen with their teeth, and they stopped their ears and ran at him with one accord, cast him out of the city and stoned him!)
a. The witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
b. And they stoned Stephen to death!
c. Let’s pick up in Acts 8:1-4.
Now Saul was consenting to his death. At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.
8. But notice verse 4!
Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.
9. Did the Devil stop the growth of the church through persecuting Christians? (Not at all).
10. Nonetheless, the battle is still hot, and the war rages on!
11. Let’s turn to our main text this morning — Ephesians 6:10ff for our sermon titled “Put on the Whole Armor of God.”
TEXT:
TEXT:
(Read then go back through).
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;
And you can keep reading and you’ll see Paul’s appeal to prayer and supplication, watchfulness, and prayer for opportunities for the Gospel to continue to spread.
But let’s go back through this verse by verse now.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
This is not unlike what Joshua was told in Joshua 1:9.
After the death of Moses, God tells Joshua to be courageous as he was about to lead the Israelites into the land of Canaan to receive their land inheritance.
As the battle to conquer Canaan was about to begin, God says in Joshua 1:9: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Church, we are in a battle for Canaan, too! Fighting our battles now so that we can head to Heaven!
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
In order to fight our fight, we have to put on our armor!
What we are going to notice about this armor in the next few verses is that much of it is defensive in nature — There’s a reason for that!
The Devil is on the prowl - 1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
And in thinking about this, let’s ask ourselves: Has the Devil really changed his tactics?
I don’t think so! Not at all!
Someone says, “Well, I don’t know. I mean I don’t remember hearing about all this transgender stuff we’re dealing with now in history class.”
Well, there’s nothing new under the sun!
The Bible talks about things such as this in Deuteronomy 22:5 - “A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for all who do so are an abomination to the Lord your God.”
It was happening back then!
1 Corinthians 6:9–11 using the KJV: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?” (Included in that list? “Effeminate,” and “Abusers of themselves with mankind.”)
So the stuff we are seeing in the news today with the homosexuality and transgenderism and all this stuff is nothing new!
The Devil has NOT changed his tactics, because the Devil is good at what he does!
So we have to make sure we have our armor on so that we can withstand the Devil’s onslaught of attacks!
The bottom line is that, again, we are in a spiritual WAR. …
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
The Devil is good at his job!
The Devil is not omnipotent - He’s not all-powerful like God.
That said, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have any power at all.
We’ve already said that he walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour!
And the Devil will use whatever tool he can get his hands on, so to speak, to infiltrate “behind enemy lines” to do as much damage as possible!
And by the way, have you thought about this?
The Devil already has those who have never become Christians, doesn’t he?!
So who do you think he spends most of his energy on?
I’d say probably trying to take out Christians!
So do we have our armor on?
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
(Let’s take a look at each item in our suit of armor!)
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
“Having girded your waist with truth” - Girding up one’s waist is necessary to be able to run forth to battle!
We might say this is our BELT of truth — In ancient warfare you had to gird up your loins to keep the waist area free from clothing interfering with your ability to run.
The belt of truth, then, helps us to run into battle without the hindrance of interference from the Devil’s greatest weapon — LIES!
John 8:32; John 17:17; Psalm 119:160.
“Having put on the breastplate of righteousness.”
What does a breastplate protect?
The vital organs of the chest cavity that are the heart and lungs, right?!
How do we protect our spiritual hearts?
We live righteous, godly lives!
If you were to go back a page or so in your Bible and look at Ephesians 4:24 it says: “and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”
True righteousness and holiness is to characterize the new life of any Christian!
and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
“Having shod (our) feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace” - What are shoes for?
GOING, right?!
So the question becomes — Christians, do we have our spiritual shoes on, and are we prepared to GO?!
Go where?
Mark 16:15 - “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Evangelizing the world is the marching order of the Christian!
Are we PREPARED to do that? (PREPARATION of the gospel of peace).
above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
“Taking the shield of faith ...” — What do you use a shield for?
To deflect/block the incoming attacks! (From the Devil’s fiery darts or arrows or whatever the case may be)
Our shield against the Devil’s attacks is our FAITH!
How, then, do we build our faith?
By reading/studying/meditating on the Word of God!
The righteous man does so DAY and NIGHT (Psalm 1:2).
By reading about great men and women of faith in the Bible, such as Abel, and Noah, and Abraham, David, and Daniel among countless others … (which we can read about many of these in Hebrews chapter 11 — Faith’s Hall of Fame) …
It greatly increases OUR faith to ward off the Devil’s attacks!
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;
The helmet protects what?
The head!
And the head contains what? (Our brain).
And the brain contains our what? (Our thoughts)
Our helmet of salvation, then, should protect our thoughts in such a way that we should always be thankful for our salvation, that such thanks would propel us to act in the righteous ways that Christians are expected to act, being doers of the Word and not just hearers only (James 1:22).
And we I’ll remind us here that Romans 12:1–2 says “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
And then finally our last piece of armor: “Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”
Much like having our waist gird about with truth, we can’t go on the offensive without our SWORD!
We need to wield the Word of God in such a way that we go on the OFFENSIVE against the wiles of Satan, not just waiting around for him to attack us!
We can’t use the Word of God as a SWORD … if we don’t KNOW the Word of God!
And the Word of God IS sharp like a two edged sword (Heb. 4:12)!
And never forget that when Jesus was tempted by the Devil (Matthew chapter 4), He responded THREE TIMES with the Word of God: “It … Is … Written!”
If we use the Word of God effectively to resist the Devil, he will flee from us! (James 4:7)
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
This morning we have looked at all 6 items in our suit of armor that is the whole armor of God.
What if we are neglecting just one item?
Then we are not prepared for battle!
So hopefully this lesson this morning will help us do just that:
Acknowledge that the Battle belongs to the Lord.
Prepare ourselves in the strength of His might to fight in His army.
And together with God, we’ll conquer Canaan!
(Give invitation).
