Spiritual Armor
Ephesians 6:11-18a says, "Put on the full armor of God, that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, 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; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit ..."
What kind of fool would go into a battle zone without protection, knowing the enemy is attacking?
As the church of God, how many times do we go into battle spiritually naked with no protection? This is not smart, because the enemy is looking for weak people to devour. I Peter 5:8 says that Satan is a roaring lion seeking to devour somebody. The lion goes for the weak, the old, the helpless, the sick, and those who are vulnerable. The enemy is looking for vulnerable spots. God has given us His armor regardless of our age or our emotional condition. God does supply protection.
How To Put On The Armor
Ephesians 6:11 says to put on the full armor of God. The word "put on" there in the Greek is the word 'enduo.' It means "to clothe." We use the word "endued" speaking of it as a covering, but it is an anointing, a clothing, something you put on. Verse 13 says, "Take up." That means, "picking up, taking up, assume, taking up again." It is an accepted term for taking up arms.
Maybe the reason that verse 13 tells us to take it up is because we laid it back down at some point? The believers either either they were supposed to put their armor on, or they did not know there was a war going on. Maybe they were lazy or they thought they were on R & R (a military term meaning rest and recreation). Our adversary does not recognize R & R. He does not recognize "down time." Therefore, you always have to be prepared. There is no relaxing here. You do not get to a place where you can say, "Well, I don't have to put the spiritual armor on today, because the enemy is going to cut me some slack." That never happens.
When God gives you the armor, you have to put it on. What if you came up to me one day and said, "I have this awesome new set of clothes. You really ought to see them." Then the next Sunday you said, "You ought to see the great new set of clothes I have." I would ask, "Where are they?" And you would say, "Well, they're in my closet." Obviously, I am not going to see them there. In order for me to ever see those clothes, you are going to have to put them on and wear them. It's like that in the spirit too.
Simply talking about your spiritual armor, giving it lip service, does not accomplish much. The armor does not protect you unless you put it on. As believers, we frequently acknowledge that we "have the armor of Christ." But the armor is not something to just talk about. Are we wearing it? We need to ask ourselves, "Have I put it on?" We have to put it on, and we have to put it on every day. It is a command of the Lord: "Put on the armor." He did not tell us to presume it is on. He said to put on the armor, take up the armor. We have to do something. There is an action here. As we begin the day, we do not know what that day will hold. We do not know what we will be called upon to do that day. We cannot say, "Excuse me God, I see a battle coming here -- time out. May I just run home and maybe have a little quiet time, and then come back when I'm ready?" You cannot do that. You do not know when the battle is coming up. You have to always be ready and prepared for it.
Sadly, not everyone understands how to put on the armor of God. Some people say, "I just get up in the morning and put it on in prayer." They say words like this: "Lord, I just want to put on the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, and the belt of truth. I shod my feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. I take the sword of the spirit and the shield of faith, and I am ready to go out for war." That is a good first step, but there is more to it. If that is all you are doing, you have not put on the full armor.
Putting on the armor is living out those things. It is righteousness. It is salvation. We have to be saved. We have to be sanctified, and we must work out who we are in the Lord. The breastplate of righteousness is the righteousness of Christ that He gives us to walk in. We must walk it out day by day. When we put on the belt of truth, we look at how God has given us His truth. When we put on the shield of faith, it means we need to walk in faith that day. When we exercise our faith, we will extinguish the darts of the enemy. We take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the living Word of God. This means that we use God's word as an offensive weapon. That is how we put on the armor.
Some people go through the whole thing verbally in their quiet time. But if they do not live out their salvation or walk in the righteousness of Christ, they have just laid their armor down. Putting on the armor is not just a prayer to pray in the morning. I do pray that prayer to remind myself that I need to live it out in my life today. I declare by faith that I have the helmet of salvation. I have the breastplate of righteousness. As I live these things, that is my protection. It is not a formula to say when you get up in the morning, although that is a good first step. You must walk it out, because if you are not walking it out you are laying your armor aside.
Some of my sermons were put on the Internet. One lady wrote back and said, "You spoke about putting on the armor. I never take it off." I responded, "You may not intentionally take it off, but if you are not always walking in the righteousness of Christ, if you are not always walking in faith, you have taken it off." You get the picture. Are you walking in the peace that passes all understanding; the peace that comes by way of the gospel? If not, then you are not wearing the armor. You have taken it off. If you walk in those things, then you will have on the armor of God. We will cover every one of those elements so that you can put them on.
The Whole Armor
The Bible says we need to put it all on; not just parts of it, but all of it. The Greek word for the "whole armor" is 'panoplia.' Some commentaries teach that Paul was in the Roman jail and he looked at a Roman guard standing there and just got inspired. He noticed that the guard had a breastplate and Paul compared it to righteousness. However, it did not happen like that. We know that, because Paul said to put on the full armor of God, and the guards at the jail would not have had their full armor on. Paul was talking about something he would have seen as the Roman soldiers were marching out to war. The guards at the jail with Paul probably did not have their shields, and possibly not their lances either.
We often do not understand the full concept of the armor of God. When you think of a Roman soldier, what comes to your mind? You might picture him in a hat with a little point on top, a mini-skirt, and a little tiny shield. That soldier is not ready for war. He is ready to look good in front of other people. The soldiers who were ready for war had shoes (grieves) with cleats on the bottom. The shoes were made for marching, advancing, and retreating. It was one of their secrets for waging war and winning. The soldier standing in front of Paul was not wearing that kind of shoe. He probably wore his regular, every-day equivalent of tennis shoes. He was not geared up for battle. Paul had often seen soldiers going to war. His hearers would have fully understood as he described a person who is fully armored up to engage in war.
We need to put on the full armor of God. The armor is both offensive and defensive -- it includes both. The armor is complete, not lacking in anything. It is whole with no dents or holes. It is complete with shield, helmet, breastplate, grieves, sword, belt, and lance -- all seven pieces. Some people say that Paul forgot the lance, but the lance is prayer, which is mentioned in the next sentence. It does include all seven pieces.
Why We Need The Armor
In our last lesson, we talked about putting on the whole armor of God, all seven pieces. It is important to use all of the armor if you want it to protect you. The Roman soldier's armor covered the whole body -- there were not any gaps in it. There are no gaps in God's armor, either. It is full and complete covering and protection. It does not lack anything. It has no flaws or bad places or vulnerable spots. The only vulnerability we have is if we forget to put it on. Then we are vulnerable.
When you put it on, you do not just pick and choose which pieces you want. If you do, you are not putting on the full armor. You do not say, "Well, today I think I'll put on the helmet. I like the salvation part -- the belt of truth, too. Righteousness -- well, maybe I won't put that on today." You do not get to pick and choose. What would our army be like, if soldiers went out to war and everyone was allowed to choose their own weapon? One soldier might say, "I think I'll take that rusty rifle my great grandpa used to hunt squirrels. It worked pretty well for him." That would be a disaster.
Suit up with the whole armor. When you use the whole armor, all the areas of your life are covered and protected. It is God's armor, and it is God's design for you to have it on. Do not waste your time with imitations. God has His own designer label. We put on the imitation -- the things that we think will protect us. For example, going to church is a good thing. But going to church is not your armor. It may help you to put your armor on. It may facilitate putting on righteousness and walking it out. However, if you think you are protected just because you went to church last Sunday, I have news for you. It will help you, and so will your time with God and your Bible study, but that is not the armor. It is part of it, but not all of it -- no imitations, please.
Put on the armor of God. With God's armor, there are no equipment failures or flaws. We must be careful that we are trusting in the God of the armor and not just the armor of God. Some people worship the armor. Worship God.
I Samuel 4 is the story of Hophni and Phinehas. Hophni and Phinehas were very ungodly men. They did things I cannot even talk about from the pulpit. Read the first few chapters in Samuel yourself if you want to know the whole scoop. In Chapter 4, they entered into a battle and were losing. Then they had an idea. They decided to take the ark of the covenant into battle with them. They were sure they would win if they had the ark with them. They took it into battle, and the Philistines went ballistic. At first, they freaked out and began to run, but then they began to fight, and they beat Israel. Hophni and Phinehas thought the ark was some sort of a secret weapon. They thought that when they had the ark, they had God. However, their personal lives were in shambles, filled with immorality and ungodliness. Nevertheless, they still wanted God to bless them.
We need to be careful that we do not glorify the armor and miss God. He is the one who puts it on us and empowers it. He is the one who protects us. He needs to be the focus here.
The Reason For Armor
Why do we need it? We need it in order to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. We need to be able to stand firm. The word "able" is 'dunamai,' which means, "to have the ability, strength and power." When some people talk about the armor of God they know they need to put it on, but they do not know why. They know they should put on the armor today, but they do not know what they are supposed to do with it.
Let me explain. If God tells you to dress up in armor one day, does that give you a clue what is going to happen that day? If a guy comes up wearing a football uniform, what do you think he is going to do that day? Play soccer? Play baseball? If you look at the uniform, you will see what the game is that day.
Likewise, if God tells you to arm up with the armor, what is ahead of you? You will have a little fighting that day. Is there a day that goes by when you do not have to fight? No, there is not. Some days the fighting is fiercer than on other days. There is no day that goes by in which you can escape the battle. You are going to engage in it, so you need the power to stand against the enemy.
The word "stand against" is the word 'histemi' and it means "standing in an upright and active position." You take your stand to ward off the attacks of the enemy. You need to stand on that ground and hold onto that ground before any offensive can be launched. You are supposed to take a stand against the schemes of the devil.
Some people think to stand means to grin and bear it. Some people think it means to do nothing. Some people think it means to shut their eyes and maybe the evil will go away. Does it ever go away? No, it does not. When we talk about the devil, people sometimes freak out. They do not want to talk about it. Does the Bible ever talk about it? Of course it does. Maybe they need to read those verses again.
The Bible talks about the devil. Why? So that you can do your part. Ignoring the devil does not make him go away. People do that with their problems. They think if they ignore them long enough, they will go away. Have you ever done that? If so, did your problems go away? In most cases, you eventually had to deal with them. You cannot ignore the devil, because he will keep coming back. We do not talk about him to glorify him, but to let you know that you have victory over him.
Stand against the schemes of the devil. The word "schemes" means craftiness or wiles. The Greek word 'methodeia' comes from two words: 'meta,' which is "with," and 'hodeuo,' which is "travel or journey." We get our word "odometer" from that word. It has the sense that we are with the road or with a plan. It can be used in a positive way. For example, there is a method for doing surgery. Surgeons need to know not only how to fix the problem inside, but also how to get to it, where and what they are going to cut. Then they need to know how to finish. They need to take out all the sponges. They need to put things back together so there will be a minimum amount of damage and recovery time. They need to think it all through beforehand.
In the negative way, the word 'methodeia' is used in the sense of "deceitful scheming, deception, or craftiness." This simply speaks of the kingdom of darkness seeking to destroy us. People think the kingdom of darkness is like a black hat stuck in the corner: as long as you do not mess with it, you are probably okay. If we ignore it, we think we will be all right. Those with this type of thinking do not quite understand the nature of the kingdom of darkness. The enemy not only lashes out when he is backed into a corner, it is his nature to attack. It is part of who he is and what he does.
Look at some of the verses in the Bible that speak about the kingdom of darkness: II Corinthians 2:11 says, "Lest Satan should get an advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices." John 10:10 gives a job description of the kingdom of darkness -- "The thief comes only to steal, and to kill, and to destroy." The kingdom of darkness is not passive but very active. Satan comes in any way he can. Anywhere there is an opening he will come in. If there is a back door, he will come in. His attacks are subtle. He will try to seduce you. If your armor is not on, he will attack you. I mentioned the lion that is seeking to devour. He is looking for the helpless, the weak, and the unprotected. He has many believers to choose from -- all those who walk around without the armor.
When Satan tempted Jesus, where was Jesus? Jesus was at His weakest point. He did not start at the fourth or fifth day of the forty-day fast, but came at the very end when Jesus was weak. That did not work, so the devil went underground and tried to use more subtle ways.
If the devil was willing to attack and tempt Jesus, it follows that he will be willing to attack us as well. He will try to do his attacks when he thinks they will be most effective, when he perceives we are weak and vulnerable. Some people think that if they don't wear their armor, if they are not dressed for battle, the enemy will simply leave them alone, must as modern militaries try to leave civilians alone. But that is not the case. You will get attacked whether you have the armor on or not. The attack with land with more effect if you are caught unprepared, if you don't have the armor on. In fact, when you don't have your armor on, you are weaker and more vulnerable. Since Satan likes to attack at your most vulnerable points, you give him more invitations to attack you (instead of less invitations) when you leave your armor off.
Standing Effectively
The Battle Stance
The Lord wants you to know that He has already defeated the kingdom of darkness. He is saying to His church, "You need to arm up. You need to get ready, for the battle is coming." Ephesians 6:13 says, "So that you can stand in the evil day." You may ask, "What day is that?" Any day that has evil in it. We may think it is talking about when the battle is the fiercest and the hottest, when everything is flying around. Some days you seem to be doing okay, and other days everything seems to be coming down upon you. The battle is raging. Everything is fierce. The mortars are exploding all around, and wherever you turn shrapnel is hitting you. In those days, you want to be able to stand. You need to put on the armor so that you can stand. The believer's battle stance is to stand.
You have to hold your ground. That is that first word, 'histemi,' which means, "to stand or stand against." There is protection as you do that. The believer is to take or assume his battle stance of standing. Standing is not running away. Standing is not fleeing. Standing is not surrendering. If you are running away or fleeing, you are not standing at all. You must hold your ground and you must keep holding your ground.
In verse 13, Paul used the word 'stenai' and he used the word 'katergazomai' in front of that to give you a word that means "opposing, resisting, withstanding, hanging in there, not giving up, persevering." This means that you keep holding your ground. You determine, "I will not give up. I will not give in." Then you finish by holding your ground: "Having done everything, stand." The King James version says, "Having overcome all, stand."
Some people think that the end of verse 13 means, "Since you can't do anything else, stand," or, "Since nothing else you are doing is working so far, stand." He is not saying that if nothing else is working you should just hang in there and hopefully, after a while, it will quit. He says stay until the end.
The word, "having done all," here means, "to be doing thoroughly, working it out." It means, "having brought everything to the ultimate conclusion, having finished it, stand." You start standing, you hang in there, standing. And you finish standing. When you stand, when the dust settles, you will still be standing. If you will take your position and say, "I will not be moved. Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. When God is in me, He is greater. I am going to take my position, I am going to stand, and I am not going to be moved from this. Nobody is going to push me or knock me off this. I am going to hang in there. The grace of God will come and He will be able to protect me. And then, when the battle is fierce and dust and everything is flying; when it is all settled, if I will stand, I will still be standing when it is over."
Reasons To Stand
The problem comes when things start flying around and we say, "Uh-oh! It's time for me to bail out." Then we just take off. We run, or we say, "Okay, I'm tired. I surrender. I give up. Can we quit now?" Don't do that. We have been given everything to be able to stand. Let me conclude by giving four reasons why we should stand.
First: God commands it. That should be enough. We can actually stop there, but we won't. God says to do it. The good soldier of Jesus Christ will decide to do it, if for no other reason than our commander-in-chief, Jesus, Captain of the Host of the Lord, commanded us to do it. The problem is that soldiers are sometimes more interested in saving themselves than they are in the cause of Christ. They do not realize that as they stand, that is their protection. They think they may be saving themselves by running, but in reality, they are making themselves more vulnerable. We need to have an attitude that says," I'm going to serve Christ no matter what."
It is an attitude like that of Uriah the Hittite. He was the first husband of Bathsheba. King David had a little problem there. He thought he could solve this problem by getting rid of Uriah. So the first thing he did was to bring him in from the battlefield. His wife was pregnant and Uriah was not the father, David was. So David told him, "Why don't you go ahead and go home? Have some R & R." The guy would not do it. He said, "No, I can't do that -- not when everyone is fighting and the war is going on. I couldn't do that in good conscience." He slept right at David's door. David was probably thinking, "How can I get rid of this guy?" Therefore, David planned a scheme in order to get rid of him. He sent a message back to Joab, and Joab put him in the front of the battle so he would be killed. What is the attitude of Uriah the Hittite? Notice his devotion and commitment to the king and to the cause for which he was willing to give his life. In the natural, when you sign up for the military, you sign up to give your life. You are saying, "I will give my life for my country. If the country requires my life, I must give it." That is also the commitment of a good soldier of Jesus Christ. God commands it.
Second: God supplies armor sufficient for the battle. The army of God is the best armed army there is. We have superior weapons. Isn't it shameful to see an army retreat when they have superior weapons? It is a disgrace to the defending soldiers of Christ because Christ gives us everything we need in order to win. He gives us all the power we need to resist the devil at every turn. He gives us His grace. He gives us the resources of heaven. Yet, so many turn and run or surrender. It does not make sense. It is like trying to make sense out of Adam and Eve. They were in the garden that is full of things to eat, and God told them not to eat of that one tree. They did not eat from that tree because they were hungry. They had plenty to eat. God had made an ample supply so that they would not be tempted to sin, but they still did.
God has given us an ample supply to be victorious, to be overcomers, to win, so why in the world do we not use those resources? Why do we surrender, and why do we run? It does not make sense, but we still do it. The provision is there. We have the resources of heaven to come to our aid. God supplies us with sufficient armor for the battle so that we have no excuse.
Third: Christians can rely on the fact that resisting the enemy is always safer. Do you want to know the safest place to be? The safest thing will always be to resist, not to run. God provides armor to protect Christians while they are fighting. There is no armor to protect while fleeing or retreating. Stand, and the day is yours. Run, flee, or yield, and it is lost.
History is filled with many great generals who have cut off their ways of retreat -- burning bridges or burning boats. William the Conqueror was one of these. Cortez did the same thing. His armies must have been wondering how they would get home. They must have realized they would now have to fight.
The Christian faith is strong when we resist. God does not make provision for cowards. Is there any armor for our backs? There is a measure of protection in the back, but it is the most vulnerable area. It is only exposed when running away -- when not facing the enemy.
Hebrews 10:38 says, "For my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him." What would you rather face -- dying in the heat of the battle for the sake of the Lord, or being shot for being a coward by retreating? The result is going to be the same whether for the kingdom or against it. Your safety relies on your resistance.
Fourth: The enemy is only overcome by force when you resist. James 4:7 says, "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." Submit to God -- that is the first part. You cannot do the second part until you do the first. Resist the devil. It did not say compromise with the devil. It did not say a little give-and-take. Resist the devil and he will flee. If you don't resist, will he flee? No. If you do not resist, the devil will think, "Pushover -- victim--easy meat. I'm going for this guy." Your protection is in resisting, and the way he is defeated is in your resistance.
The Lord wants you to change your mentality today. He wants you to recognize the war that you are in, and understand that your safety and your protection will come as you put on what you need, and as you go after the enemy. If you don't, he will come after you. God wants to encourage you by letting you know that if you will stay there and be firm, and not give up or quit, God's resources will come through for you. He will give you whatever you need. When the dust settles, you will still be standing. So, suit up. You do not escape the battle today. Come. Did you put on the armor today? If not, God said to do it, and whenever we don't do what God says to do, we call that sin. We need to confess that to God. If you have not been putting it on or walking it out, right now have a confession time between you and God. Tell Him that you are sorry. Confess it as sin right now. Just tell the Lord that you want to stand in the heat of the battle. You want to stand when it gets worse. You want to stand when things are falling in on you.
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