The Armor of God - Part 1

0:10Thank you for listening to the Sermon Audio Podcast for Crossroads Reformed Baptist Church in Rockdale, Texas. Crossroads Reformed Baptist Church is a reformed confessional Baptist church that meets every Lord's Day at 10 a.m. for Bible study and 11 a.m. for corporate worship. For more information about our church or for directions, you can visit us online at www.crbcrockdale.org. Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

0:44You have probably seen enough of me at this point. Not probably, you definitely have, but hang with me for another 30 minutes or so and go ahead and turn to the book of Ephesians. It is continually going to be bittersweet as we wrap up the book of Ephesians now this week and then two more weeks, and we will be uh we will be through the entirety of the book of Ephesians. But I want to begin this morning with a brief recap to bring us all back up to speed where we are from what we covered last week by saying this the enemy is real and he is active against us. Sin and the effects of sin are a bitter and painful reality. Our fight then is a fight of faith against Satan, who wishes to deceive us and to destroy us. Our fight is a fight of faith against sin that desires to keep us in that slaw of despond and despair. So cunning and deceptive is the enemy, and so great is the power of our own sin that we are utterly hopeless to stand against it in our own strength. But praise and thanks be to God that we are enabled to stand firm this morning. Not in our own strength, but in the powerful might of Christ. It is Him alone who supplies us with everything that we need to stand. It is the strength and intercession of Christ that guards us and keeps us and sustains us and empowers us.

2:45That's great church talk, though, isn't it?

2:50It sounds great. But we are perhaps this morning still asking how it is that we are to make use of this endless well of strength and this firm and stable footing that has been offered to us. We began working out that answer last week with the wisdom of the word. That makes certain we know about the reality of this battle and the enemy that we face. Knowledge. Knowledge of the enemy and his schemes. This is the first practical step in this battle that we covered last week. We also saw that the promise, the power of Christ is indeed sufficient for us and is indeed made available to us. But we must put on this armor that He provides. And that's where we pick it up this week as we begin to put on the whole armor of God, the whole armor that he gives us. To stand and to not only have a fighting chance against the enemy, but to be victorious. As our great and mighty captain has indeed already won the battle for us. So this week, then we look at part one of this whole armor. Let us stand together once more as we read our text, Ephesians chapter 6, starting in verse 13. 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 firm, stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. This is the word of the Lord. Lord, we thank you again for this day, for your word, and for this blessed armor, this holy armor that you have provided for us to put on and stand in. Lord, we pray and ask by your Spirit, would you illuminate this word for us? Speak to us, Lord, that we may indeed stand in this armor that you have given to us. We ask all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. In every war that has been fought throughout the history of mankind, there's always those pivotal, pivotal battles. Those battles that turn the fight in one direction or the other. And these are often the battles that get named, right? Something that you read about in the history books. And there are many smaller skirmishes that happen throughout those battles, through those wars. But every general knows and he looks for those big fights. Even while defending and planning in those smaller campaigns, there's always a strategizing and planning and preparing for those big fights, those great clashes. These are the evil days that Paul is getting at in verse 13 of our text. It is not looking all the way forward to that final day of judgment, that evil day that will also be a victorious day. But rather, these are those pivotal, pivotal battles, those named battles that you will inevitably face in life. It is the reminder that he grounds us in his exhortation to put on the armor so that you will be ready to stand and fight when those days come. Because those evil days are coming, church. That is not the question. The question is whether you will be equipped with the holy armor to withstand them or to stand in them when they come. This is the same thing that Paul said back in chapter 5 when he cautioned to look carefully as we walk, he said. To make the best use of our time because the days are evil, he said. Do you remember that? Make the best use of your time because the days are evil. It's so easy when we experience a bit of peace, as we have and presently are. To let our guard down, right? To take off the armor and to put it up in the closet because the sky is clear. The crops are growing. There's food in the storehouse, the kids are happy. The dogs are behaving. Work is great. Everything is wonderful. What do I need this armor for?

8:34I'm good. Careful now.

8:41The exhortation here is to avoid that complacency. When things are peaceful as though there is nothing at all to do. I would argue many of the evil days that we face in America today are exclusively because the church became peacefully complacent. We've taken off the armor. Now the enemy is in the camp. So the teaching here is to be ready, to stay ready. And to prepare your mind and soul when the days are peaceful, so that you are able to withstand when the day of evil comes. But this is often where we get it backwards. You've all experienced this. When the enemy strikes, when that evil day comes, when you fall into sin, perhaps, when some trial comes into your life, that is when we pour over Scripture. That is when we seek the wisdom of God. That is when we cry out to God for strength, right? When the battle begins, then our zeal flails up, flares up in desperation. Praise God for that zeal in those moments of desperation. But where is that same zeal to prepare the armor in times of peace? Where is that same diligence to make the best use of your peaceful days so that you are equipped and ready for those difficult times? The book of Proverbs speaks much about the sluggard. A little sleeping, a little folding of the hands. That isn't talking only about money, right? As though poverty befalls the sluggard. It isn't speaking only of money, it's speaking of diligence, it's speaking against complacency. It's the one who perhaps lets the garden of their soul fill with thorns. Let's the nettles grow in. Because they have grown lazy in their spiritual peace. They have turned in their armor instead of keeping it cleaned and ready.

11:50They have let their fortifying walls crumble.

11:54I'll get around to it someday. But things are fine now. We tend to always think everything is going to be okay until it isn't.

12:11Nothing to worry about. All is well. And this is not a call to live in fear.

12:24Rather, church, listen, this is a call to the opposite of that. This is a call to live in constant strength, to live in confidence, to live in diligence, preparing daily, keeping the soul battle ready. Because the last thing you want to do is to be taken off guard when that evil day comes. So we take up the whole armor of God. We maintain it well. We refresh it daily so that we always stand ready. This is the call, Church. How does it look then to prepare oneself for this battle? I've now been talking for multiple weeks about this armor. I'm sure you are saying, would you just tell us about the armor already? I'm going to. And this is where we begin to answer, I think, those howl questions that we have been wrestling with. How is it that we walk worthy? How is it that we live as we have been called? And it makes good sense that the armor or armor is what Paul uses for this illustration, as we have said, way back early in Ephesians, as Paul is writing this letter, he is in prison. So he is undoubtedly staring at, or perhaps even chained to a Roman soldier all of the time. And so by God's grace and providentially, he has in front of him this very clear picture of these elements of warfare. And he uses them, he redeems them for godly purposes.

14:14And so we begin then.

14:19Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth. We put on the belt of truth. The men of this day had a uh very different custom of attire than we have today. Their uh casual wear, I guess you could say, consisted of these long robes that went almost all the way to the ground. And as a result, if those men needed to move quickly, or if they needed to run, or if they needed to do a bit of work, they would have to bundle up these robes, usually around their waist, and they would tie them with a cord or with a belt. In that first state, then, that is comfortable or casual, they're not ready for action. But when girded or belted up, they are ready to move. So fasten up your garments or gird up those things that hinder you from movement. This is what the text is saying. So that you were ready, so that you don't trip yourself up when you begin to move. Don't get tangled up in your robes. So Paul says that the thing that ties up our garments, that makes us ready for action, that keeps us from stumbling or tripping, is what? It's truth.

16:05It is truth.

16:08Truth, then, whatever Paul means by truth, is the thing that keeps our action secure, that makes us ready, that keeps us from stumbling. The obvious question is: what is he talking about by truth? Because it seems pretty important, yes? Many commentators and theologians have struggled a bit here throughout history because we are tempted to jump to perhaps the immediate and the obvious word of God. That is truth. Surely that's what Paul means. This is the obvious source of truth that Paul is talking about, the word of God. But that wouldn't make full and total sense because, in context, Paul later says that the sword is the word of God. So we shouldn't think that he intended to tell us that the word of God is both the belt and the sword. And if he did mean that, why didn't he just tell us that? These are the questions. So you see the exegetical dilemma that many have been put in here. If these six pieces of armor are so vital for us in this war against the enemy and against sin, then the question of truth becomes the most important or one of the most important questions that we can ask. What does he mean by truth? You may have seen this interview if you're on YouTube at all, which many of you are. It was running around for a while. Um, but this young Christian evangelist, or maybe apologist is a better word. His name is Bryce Crawford, if you know this guy. He was uh he did an interview with Howie Mandel. And one of the topics that came up with him in this interview is this notion of objective truth. Uh Bryce asked Howie, do you believe in objective truth? And Howie said, I believe in my truth, and you have your truth? To which Bryce responded, if there is no objective truth, that is, nothing that is knowable, right or wrong, or good or bad, how can we defend something like Hitler? What he did as objectively wrong? This is his truth that told him to do that. If it was good for him, who am I or any of us to tell him that he can't live according to his truth? That's an extreme but inevitable end of making truth to be nothing more than a concept or an idea or a mutable thing which can be something for someone and something else for someone else. This is at the core of what Paul is really getting at here with the understanding of this belt of truth. That to be made ready to move, to act, to respond, to defend in any and all circumstances in this life, we must be girded, fastened, belted with truth. Objective truth, God's truth. Before we do anything else, before we put on any other armor, we must be fastened with truth.

19:43And certainly the word of God is a very large part of that truth.

19:53Because it is there where we find the revelation of God about what is true. But we must hold two things together here, and we've talked about this at length. We're not Biblicists, church, in that we say that what is contained within this book here, that this is the only possible source of truth that exists in the world. As though the light of nature or natural revelation, or we say general revelation, as though that's not a thing, we do not say that. At the same time, though, truth cannot be just whatever it means to you. It can't be that, because what would be the purpose of girding yourself up with something that is totally subjective? That would have no holding power, right? So what is being communicated to us then? First, I'll give it to you in the negative. We do not fasten ourselves, church. We do not keep ourselves from stumbling with other people's opinions. We are not made stable and ready by other people's personal convictions, by other people's interpretations of things, by other people's ideas about things. We don't support our action with theories or with passions or with inclinations. We are not made ready by whims, but rather with objective truth. Truth is indeed a thing. It's a knowable thing. And it alone is that which girds us, which makes us ready for action. Lest we trip or stumble or not be ready to move. We need to act in truth. And Paul communicates then positively that the fight against the enemy begins with clarity on truth. How do we stand against the enemy and against our own sin? How are we able to act and not stumble? How to fight the battles in life, we must know what truth is. And it must be firmly fastened to us. We must not compromise it for the sake of compassion or for any other reason. What is true? What is from God? What aligns with his word and his revelation, those are the things that we firmly hold. Again, I say, what is true, what is from God, what aligns with his word and with his character and with his nature revealed to us. This is true and what we firmly hold. Because what does the enemy do to deceive us? He's a liar, right? He's the father of lies. He will confuse. He will persuade us with emotions. He will make us uncertain about things. He will manipulate us with guilt. He will call us to be empathetic over true, compassionate over true. Did God really say that? He said that. He came up with that question. We then become enticed into self-justification, into confusion, into compromise. We start looking for guidance and direction in all the wrong places. And this is where we lose the battles. Gird yourself up with objective truth. The truth of God found in his word, the truth of God revealed to us in his nature. It is truth that wins, not empathy. It is truth that grounds and holds before we do anything. If we are not fastened with and held by truth, we will stumble and fall. Because truth is a thing that Romans chapter 1 says that we do all know. Because God has revealed it to us. And the only reason why we don't know it, the only reason why we don't gird ourselves with it is because what? We suppress it in our unrighteousness. So there is truth revealed to us by God, and we make every effort to know it, not just to suppress it, and we gird ourselves with it. That is, we are made ready by it and through it at all times. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness. Let us consider what uh first what it is that the breastplate covers when worn by a soldier. Again, Paul is looking and he's seeing this soldier wearing a breastplate. What is that covering? Well, the breastplate covers all of the vital organs of the body. It covers the heart, it covers the lungs, it covers the bowels. You may remember when we talked previously that in those ancient times, the bowels, your inward parts, was considered the seat of your affections, your emotions, your feelings, your conscience. This was the bowels, the inward parts. Paul mentions many times his affections for Christ, and the word that he uses there when Paul speaks of affections in the Greek is the word for inward parts or inerts. The inward parts. These are the seats of our emotions, our passions. How the enemy loves. He delights to fling arrows at those inward parts, those affections, those passions, those emotions. Church, I'd be a rich man if I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say that they are acting out of some personal feeling that they have about a situation that feels right to them, right? That they have been given some permission to act in a certain way or to feel a certain way about something, to whom they've been given this, I'm not sure, but they feel peace about something. Have you heard this? I just feel a peace about it. Or they don't feel a peace about something. Consequently, our moods, our attitudes, our emotions, they're constantly being entrusted to a varied and ever-changing degree of circumstances. Church, the command is to cover such things, that is, to protect your inward parts, your vulnerabilities with the breastplate of righteousness. It is important then to see clearly what is this righteousness that Paul is speaking of. Spoiler, it's not your righteousness, but an imputed righteousness. The breastplate that guards us, that protects us, that covers our passions is the reality that we have been given or imputed a righteousness that is not our own. We will always get ourselves into trouble when we attempt to live by and are guarded by our own righteousness. When we are the source of our own emotional protection, we become susceptible to the enemy because a breastplate of our own righteousness is terrible armor. I don't care how righteous you are.

29:05Paul tells us this explicitly in his letter to the Philippians about his own righteousness and what that meant to him.

29:24As far as a self-made righteous breastplate, Paul had as good an armor as anyone could have. But what does he say the value of that was? What was the value of his righteousness? Whatever he gained in his own righteousness, he said he counted it as loss. To know Christ, to be imputed with the righteousness of Christ, this was as far more value than anything he could ever do on his own. And so for Paul and for us, his prize and his protection did not come from himself or his righteousness, but was the righteousness that was given to him by Christ. Again, he says later in that letter with respect to the grounding in the midst of all of his emotional and circumstantial highs and lows of life, which can be subject to those, to pride and to despair, all of the things that Paul went through, he says that he has learned in whatever situation to be content. He says that he knows how to be brought low. He knows how to abound. In any and every circumstance he's learned, he says, the secret to life. Do you want the secret to life? The secret to facing plenty and being in need. The secret to abundance and to hunger. What does he say? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. The secret to life, the armor that covers us and protects our inward being, is the revelation that our God has given us his righteousness. The very righteousness of Christ, to protect against being too high or too low, to protect against acting from or defending from our own righteousness or to allow the enemy into our most vulnerable emotions and passions is to be protected and covered by the perfect righteousness, Christ. The protection from being a slave to or a victim of our own emotions, church. The protection from becoming a slave of our own passions and our own pride is the righteousness of Christ. He has seen fit to consider you highly enough to take upon himself all of your sins. And to give you back in return his perfect righteousness. And by that, in his eyes, you are holy. You are blameless before him. He has ordered your days, he has given you a purpose, he has supplied you with strength, he has imputed you with his perfect righteousness, church. What can stand against you? What trial will put you down? What accusation will ever stick? What enemy will ever have victory over you when you are shielded by the righteousness of Christ? Nothing is the answer to that question. But we have to realize and put on this great armor that He provides. So we don't live from passions, we live from truth. We don't live according to our own righteousness, but we stand protected by the righteousness of Christ. Finally, then verse 15. And as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace, we put on the gospel shoes. Our brother Cade has perhaps learned this lesson the hard in the painful way. Proper shoes for a particular event not only make you better at that thing, but they can protect you from a broken shoulder. For fear of using too corny of an analogy, I'm just gonna do it. How often do we run onto the kickball field of life? Wearing slick dress shoes instead of something which we can keep our footing in. In this warfare against the enemy church, not any shoe will do.

34:52We need proper souls on our feet.

34:59This really does, again, I'm done with the analogy after this. It really does affect the whole body, doesn't it? Our whole bodies and our whole souls can be affected by not equipping our feet for the work in front of us. How then is the gospel good footwear? Because that's what it says. The gospel is the footwear. Well, how? How is the gospel good footwear? Too often when we think about the gospel, we consider it primarily or perhaps solely, pun intended, as news that we need to share. As though the gospel is nothing more than a message that we need to speak or to evangelize with. Well, the gospel is that, for sure. But don't forget that the good news is not only, or perhaps not even primarily, a message to share, but a truth to receive and to live by and stand on. Our firm footing comes from the eternal assurance that this blessed good news is truly offered to us. I know I've read this passage a lot. But this is the gospel good news that we need to be made ready in. Romans 8. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised and who is at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding for us. What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or a sword? As it is written, For your sake we are being killed all day long, and we are guarded as sheep to the slaughter. No, in all of these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither life nor death, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. This is the message that gives a sure and stable footing. This is the message that readies our feet for action. That the God who did not spare his own son but gave him up for you, how will he not also supply you everything in every situation that you need? Church, this good and gracious God who set his affections upon you before the foundation of the world, that is true. What has bewitched you, church, to think something other than the truth of that blessed gospel? That since everything comes from him by his spirit, for his glory, will he somehow let you fall now? What is that distorted reality that has led you to ever think that you run out onto the field in shoes of your own making? What deception has crept into your mind that would cause you to trust in yourself rather than your God and his gospel? This God who has known you, who has loved you from eternity past, and known you and loved you so much that he sent his own son to die for you. Of course, he will never allow anything to separate you from him. Would the blood of his own son be shed in vain?

39:42These are the shoes upon our feet.

39:46That are so sure that we will never stumble in them. That comes from this blessed truth that all who call on the name of the Lord shall surely be saved. And they will be raised up with him on the last day. And the only reason why you ever called on his name to begin with is because he called you and he loved you while you were still in sin. This is why Paul can so confidently stand in that truth, knowing that nothing will be able to snatch you from his hand. Because the gospel truth is not that we are clinging to God, but that by his grace he will hold us fast. You quite literally have nothing then to fear. And if you have been justified by him, by grace through faith, you can draw near to his throne, knowing that you are righteous in his sight, and you will never be lost. It doesn't get any firmer footing than that, amen? So that is how we begin then to put on the armor. We make ourselves ready for action by the whole of his revealed truth, that is, objective truth, not falling complacent or compromising, but being made ready by his unchanging truth. We protect ourselves from our fickle passions by a constant covering of the righteousness of Christ. When we are attempted to justify ourselves or to validate ourselves, we must be constantly reminded that the secret to facing life is the strength and righteousness of Christ alone. We give ourselves a stable footing in the assurance of the gospel good news. If it is Christ who began the good work in you, will he not see it through to the end? Of course he will. So we stand in these today, and next week we will consider the shield, the helmet, and the sword. Church, may our God be with us, and may we continue to stand firm in his power and in his might against the enemy. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you again, and as always, for your word, Lord. We thank you especially this morning for the armor, Lord, that you have given to us this truth, Lord, that you have revealed to us in your word. Lord, and through nature, we thank you that even the heavens declare your grandeur. Lord, help us to know your truth. Help us to stand firm in it, Lord. Help us to be covered by the righteousness of Christ daily, Lord, that we stand not in self-justification, Lord, but that we trust in the righteousness that is given to us, the declaration, Lord, that given to us by you, Lord, that we are perfect in your sight. That is an uncomprehendable truth, Lord. That way may we know and be protected in that. Lord, help us to receive, Lord, the gospel, not only as a message that we share, Lord, but a truth for us. Help us to receive that good news, Lord, that while we were still in sin, Lord, you died for us. You have called us from our grave when we were dead. Lord, you have given us a new name and a new life and a new purpose. Lord, surely you will see us through to the end. Let that be our strong and stable footing. Lord, help us to walk worthy. We love you, Lord. Ask all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.