Sermons from Moorpark Presbyterian Church

Into the Armory

by Dave Wilkinson

Ephesians 6:13-15

January 23, 2000

A California farmer who was famous for thrift moved into an area of Oklahoma that frequently had tornadoes. He heard many stories about how bad they were, so he finally took some of his hard-earned money and built a strong storm cellar. From then on, whenever the sky would darken he would head for his new storm cellar. And time and time again he would come back up out of the storm cellar to find no evidence of any real storm or damage.

After a number of these incidences he was beginning to have second thoughts about his wisdom in investing money in a storm cellar that he had never needed. Then one day he came out of the cellar to find that a tornado had leveled his home and barn. Debris and chaos were everywhere. The farmer took a look around, glanced skyward and shouted, "Now that’s more like it!"

I’m glad he was satisfied. But what would have happened to him if he had not listened to his neighbors? What would have happened if he had not taken their stories to heart? What would have happened if he had not prepared himself? He would have been in his house when it came down around his ears.

If we don’t recognize a danger, we will not recognize a need for protection. We won’t recognize a need to get serious with our faith.

We have been looking since the New Year this summer at what Paul writes in his Letter to the Ephesians about spiritual warfare. I have dealt with verses 10-12 in two previous sermons. But we need to quickly review. For unless you remember the battle, what Paul writes now about the armor of God will seem pointless. Or it may be that you remember what Paul has said about spiritual warfare but don’t think that it’s true today. If that’s your response, well that’s a matter between you and God, not between you and me. My role is to preach what the word of God clearly says. Whether you take it to heart is between you and your Lord.

Here’s a brief review of the battle we face: It starts with the knowledge that there are forces of evil in this world that go beyond what is apparent. We need to be Biblically realistic. We need to include that part of the equation, which, if left out, leads us to the wrong answer.

Paul tells us that we cannot adequately explain life on the purely human level. We must look further and deeper than that. The battle is not only against flesh and blood. We are opposed by the principalities and powers, the world rulers of this present darkness. This battle takes place in the world around us and within our own beings.

A pastor once received a revealing complaint from a member of his congregation: "You make people think too much. I like a church where I can unscrew my head and leave it under the pew until the end of the service." But there is no room in Christian faith for unscrewed heads. The challenge of this ruthless, often loveless age demands all of our brains as well as all of our hearts and all of our courage. That is why we always encourage people to bring both their Bibles and their brains to worship and to our education classes.

Our Christian pilgrimage requires the involvement of the "whole person." And for this whole person God had provided his "full armor" -- the divine equipment of the soldier of Jesus Christ. We need this armor because we are engaged in a very real spiritual battle.

The fierceness of this battle is shown by the word Paul uses when he tells us to stand fast. It is "an-ti-sten-ai" which means to hold a position against great and sustained opposition. We are told to put on the armor because the world is the front line. We aren’t like the staff officers way to the rear who dress with jump boots and revolvers in order to look "colorful" or "warlike" or who walk on the polished halls of the Pentagon dressed in camouflage. Every piece of armor we are given is given for use. We are posted where we will need every last piece. T%he only reason the adversary won’t shoot at you is if He doesn’t see you as a threat — which is certainly no compliment to your Christian walk.

A Confederate brigadier general named Robert Toombs managed to keep his sense of humor even during the last, dark, desperate days of the Confederate army. When a Confederate soldier limped up to him after the surrender and said, "General, I recollect that you told us that we could whip the Yankees with cornstalks." Toombs replied with a wry grin, "So I did, but as it turned out, those Yanks didn’t fight with cornstalks."

Neither does Satan. His weapons call for the Christian to put on the full armor of God. And God gives us His armor. The Greek word that is used here is "pano-plia" which refers to the "whole armor."

Paul wrote this Ephesian letter from his imprisonment in Rome. At this point in his confinement he was in all probability chained night and day to a Roman soldier. That was the custom for Imperial prisoners. Paul’s thoughts must often have turned from the presence of the soldier of Rome to the soldier of Jesus Christ. Paul saw Christians as soldiers in a conflict, and just as the Roman soldier was armed, so are Christians. Listen to Paul’s description of our armor.

First, Paul writes, we are to gird ourselves with the belt of truth.

The belt of the Roman soldier had three functions. In battle the soldier would tuck in his long cape into the belt, in order to free his legs for movement and to avoid the danger of falling. The belt was also the piece of equipment, which held everything else in place. It was also the place where the soldier hung his sword.

Paul writes that the belt of the Christian is truth. The belt of truth is the equipment of our minds.

A man came to his old friend, a music teacher, and said in a flippant way, "What is the good news today?" The old man never said a word. He walked across the room, picked up a hammer, and struck a tuning fork. As the note sounded through the room, he said, "That is "A". It is "A" today, it was "A" five thousand years ago and it will be "A" ten thousand years from now. The soprano upstairs sings off-key, the tenor down the hall flats his high notes and the piano downstairs is out of tune." He struck the note again and said, "That is "A" my friend, and that’s the good news for today!"

Jesus Christ is "A". He is the same yesterday, today and forever. We need to constantly remember that Jesus is the truth -- not just that he came to teach the truth but that He is the truth. The world sings out of key. The religions of the world flat their high notes. The philosophies of man fall flat. But Jesus Christ remains constant. He is eternally reliable to be who He is.

Truth is primary. The truth of Jesus Christ is the belt that holds us together and keeps all of the rest of the armor God gives us in the proper place where it can be effective. We can’t reverse the order. Knowing the truth -- which means knowing Jesus Christ -- must come first.

The next piece of armor Paul describes is the armor of our emotions. This is the breastplate of righteousness.

The breastplate worn by the soldier of Rome was made of heavy brass and leather. It protected the heart from the attacks of the enemy. This is what the breastplate of righteousness does for the believer.

Through one circumstance or another, we can lack assurance in our Christian walk, We can feel that we are failures in the Christian life and that God is therefore certain to reject us. Growth is slow and sometimes we seem to be moving backwards. Our conscience seems to turn against us. We do need to do sober and accurate self assessment. But those feelings of inevitable failure aren’t from God. They are from the one Jesus called the accuser of saints, our adversary.

How do you answer an attack on your emotions like this? You are to remember that you have put on the breastplate of righteousness -- not your self-righteousness but the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You don’t stand or fall on your own merits. You don’t have anything worthwhile to offer God now and you never did. When God called you to be His son or daughter, it was with the full knowledge of the very worst that is in you. God’s not going to discover something down the line that is going to cause Him to change His mind about you. When you came to God, you came to grace. You quit trying to be good enough to please God. You came on His gift of righteousness in Jesus Christ. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 5:21. "God made Jesus who was sinless to become sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."

The breastplate of righteousness — the thing that will protect your heart, your emotions, from the attacks of the enemy, is to know that and believe it.

This is why Paul begins his great eighth chapter of Romans with the words "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation! Do you hear that? You are believing a lie when you believe that God is angry with you and that He rejects you. You have put on the breastplate of righteousness -- not your own righteousness but the righteousness of Christ imputed to you as a gift of God’s grace." Satan is a liar. He tries to convince us that we’re paupers when he knows that we are children of a King.

Larry Christiansen tells a parable to illustrate the power and confidence our breastplate should give us. He writes: "Think of yourself living in an apartment house. You live there under a landlord who makes your life miserable. He charges you exorbitant rent. When you can’t pay, he loans you money at a fearful rate of interest. You get further into his debt. He barges into your apartment at all hours of the day and night, wrecks and dirties the place, and then charges you extra for not maintaining the premises.

"Then along comes someone, who says, "I’ve taken over that apartment house. I’ve purchased it. You can live here as long as you like, free. The rent is paid up. I’m going to live here with you in the manager’s apartment." "What a joy! You are saved! You are delivered out of the clutches of the old landlord!

"But what happens? You hardly have time to rejoice in your newfound freedom when a knock comes at the door. And there he is, the old landlord! Mean, glowering and demanding as ever. He has come for the rent, he says.

"What do you do? Do you pay him? Of course you don’t. Do you go over and pop him on the nose? No, he’s bigger than you are! You confidently tell him, "You’ll have to take that up with the new landlord." He may bellow, threaten, wheedle, and cajole. You just quietly tell him, "Take it up with the new landlord." If he comes back a dozen times with all sorts of threats and waving all kinds of legal looking documents in your face, you simply tell him again, "Take it up with the new landlord." In the end he has to. He knows it too. He just hopes he can bluff and threaten and deceive you into doubting that the new landlord will really take care of things."

"Now this," Christiansen concludes, "is the situation of the Christian. Once Christ has delivered you from the power of sin you can depend on it that the old landlord will come back knocking at the door and try to reassert his lost power. And what is your defense? How do you keep him from getting the whip hand again? You send him to the new landlord. You send him to Jesus. Jesus is in charge. He is in charge of our world and he is in charge in us.

The third item of armor is for our feet. Paul writes that our feet are to be shod with the "preparation of the gospel of peace." This signifies the equipping not only of our mind and not only of our heart but the equipping of our will -- our ability to suck it up and move forward for God when everything in us but our faith says "Quit!"

In ancient warfare, battles were won or lost according to the weight of the masses of men that were hurled against each other. The heavier men with the firmer footing were likely to be the victors -- like Big 10 Football today. Our modern kind of long distance fighting is different from that. But in the old times the one thing foot soldiers needed to most was that to be able to stand the shock of the enemy assault. Unless their footing was good they would be pressed back into the ranks of the men behind and throw the entire regiment into confusion.

Two things are necessary for good footing. One is a good, solid piece of ground to stand on, that is not slippery or muddy. The other is a good strong pair of shoes that will take hold on the rough ground and help the wearer to steady himself.

Jesus has placed us on the rock of Himself. For our part, we must firmly plant ourselves on the firm footing He provides through the equipping of our wills. This is the preparation of the gospel of peace.

Note here the order of the three pieces of our armor that Paul has described. First there is truth -- confidence in Jesus Christ which produces the righteousness that comes to us by faith which in turn results in peace -- the confidence that enables us to stand fast in the fight and travel across the stony ground.

How real is this spiritual battle? How necessary is the equipping of our wills? I can only tell you that four years ago when I came to Moorpark to be the organizing Pastor of this church, I came under very intense spiritual attack. Within two weeks I was convinced that coming here had been a huge mistake --that there would never be a Moorpark Presbyterian Church. I would have been glad to find a graceful way to bow out -- like a long but curable illness.

But then God led me to go to a conference for new church development Pastors. And the one great thing I got from that conference was a recognition and a warning. One of the speakers told us very bluntly: "Satan has no interest in having strong, new churches established. They are an invasion of his territory. He will oppose them every way he can. And the best way he can stop the church before it gets going is to stop the Pastor. You men and women have put yourselves in a place where you can expect tremendous spiritual attack. Satan will try to discourage you and drive you out. Be ready." That was the breakthrough. For it enabled me to recognize the attacks for what they were and move forward with what God had called me here to do.

Napoleon often referred to one of his generals, Marshall Ney, as the bravest man he ever knew. Yet the Marshall’s knees trembled so badly one morning before a battle that he had trouble mounting his horse. When he was finally in the saddle Ney shouted contemptuously — "Shake away knees! You would shake worse than that if you knew where I am going to take you."

That is what the equipped will looks like.

The armor is there for our use. We are commanded to put it on. It’s not enough to look at it, admire it, or admire it on someone else. We need to wear it. Victory depends on two things --the strength which Jesus Christ gives and our faithfulness in making use of the strength He gives.

Paul also writes that we are to put on the whole armor of God. Half the armor won’t do the job. We aren’t to leave gaps in our defenses. Finally, we are to take up this armor continually. That’s the verb tense that is used here. Preparation for the fight must be constant. We may be like the Union soldiers at the Battle of Shiloh who sat peaceably at their campfires until the bullets suddenly started to whistle among them. There is no time to wait to put on the armor after the battle has been joined. Nothing is so certain in life as the unexpected. Preparation must be constant.

Jesus said: "In the world you have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." He gives us His armor so that we can overcome with Him.