So that You Can Stand
Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. 13 For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. 14 Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, 15 and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. 16 In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit—which is the word of God. 18 Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints. 19 Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. 20 For this I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough to speak about it as I should.
Last week I preached on Ephesians 5 where Paul wrote, “Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise—making the most of the time, because the days are evil.” (:15-16). I mentioned that paying “careful attention” to how you walk includes the understanding that we are – not will be, but are – in a war. And this includes our Christian children.
In today’s text, the topic of war – the “struggle” – is front and center. This is not a war you can afford to lose. Eternal life and eternal death are in the balance. You need to be able to stand against the enemy, so you will win. The apostle Paul in our text, therefore, informs us of the amour we are to wear and wield so when all is said and done, we will have stood our ground, and won.
But before we go to that armor, there several things to understand about this war. First, we are not fighting against human flesh and blood. We are in a real and epic battle against the devil… against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.” Our fight is against spiritual enemies who are very real, whose power and tactics and schemes are way beyond us and any natural weapons and armor we might possess. On earth is not their equal. They are not pretend mythical beings like we find in the superhero movies and comics. And these real enemies are relentless and they just keep coming and coming and coming, whether we realize it not.
Let’s get to the armor now. In the superhero movies, superheroes cannot win unless they have their armor or their weapons or their unique superhuman abilities. Take away those things and they will lose. Some of you are familiar with the video game The Legend of Zelda where a young man, Link, is seeking to rescue the princess Zelda by fighting monsters and evil beings of some sort or another, all of whom are more powerful than him, but he cannot defeat them unless he acquires armor or weapons along the way, like a sword, chest plate, a shield, or even footwear. But he not only has to have these weapons, he has to use them and use them skillfully.
The same with you. But for you it is not make-believe, it is a very real war. You need the full armor of God.
First, there is the belt of truth. I want to spend a little more time on this because at almost every step of the way like never before, we are being told not to wear this. We begin each sermon with the prayer, “Sanctify us by the truth. Your word is truth.” These words comes right from the mouth of Jesus in John 17. God’s word – the Bible – is truth. Every word, every teaching. They are not false.
That means, for example, we believe, teach, and confess that the world was created not millions or billions of years ago, but thousands of years ago in six normal days. But to discourage us from holding to that truth, we are called anti-science (which we are not), ignorant, and stupid. The pressure is on.
But it gets worse, going beyond calling us stupid. For example, we confess the biblical truth, an obvious truth, that we are born either male or female, man or woman, and that other gender identities are not in keeping with reality and truth. But insanity has taken over. We also believe in the biblical truth – again, an obvious truth – that marriage can only be between a man and woman, a truth St. Paul writes about just a few verses before our text.
But today, if you do not consider homosexuality, bisexuality, transgenderism, etc. to be morally legitimate, if you do not say that gay marriage is just fine, you will not only be called ignorant and stupid, but you will be called immoral, bigoted, and even evil. This is being shoved down our throats. It is coming from many sectors, but especially the estate of government. For example, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals stated several years ago that the biblical view of marriage was based on “a tradition of hate…and savage discrimination.”
I am pretty safe. I can say this is true and that other teaching is false from this pulpit and in my teaching without facing too much pressure. But a number of you are on the frontlines. And you feel the pressure. Hopefully you have not caved. But if you stand on the truth, you may have to pay a price, simply for believing and confessing these truths. We have seen that many Christians have lost their jobs, their reputations, and even their livelihoods simply for reasonably, calmly, kindly, and compassionately confessing these truths when they had to. If any of you are facing the pressure, please let me know so I your pastor can support and encourage you.
And the same is happening – and always has happened – when Christians confess the truth of Christ: that he is true God and true man, that he lived, suffered, died, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and that he did and does all this because of the truth that we are miserable sinners and because of the truth that only in him is the forgiveness of sins.
In other words, we hold to all the truths of the Bible beginning in Genesis all the way through Revelation. You are to wear this belt of truth. Do not begin to unbuckle it.
Second, we wear the chest armor of righteousness. There are two aspects to this righteousness we wear. One is the declared righteousness that comes to us through faith in Christ. As Paul says, “The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe” (Rom. 3:22). And you wear this righteousness, this forgiveness, this justification, with humility and boldness. I say that because it is not your own, but it is a gift from God himself for the sake of Christ, and it is real and it works. You can boldly walk around and say, “Look God, I am holy in your sight. Look neighbor, in spite of my numerous faults, I have this gift of righteousness before God. Look Satan, you cannot accuse me of sin, I have a perfect righteousness through faith in the Son of God.”
But there is another aspect to this chest armor of righteousness. Not only do we have the gift of perfect righteousness declared to us through faith in Christ, but there is a righteousness we live out day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. The Bible tells us we are not slaves to sin. If you are a Christian, that is your reality. Rather we are slaves to righteousness (Rom. 6:18). We seek to live what we are declared to be. The lives we live, the words we speak, the thoughts we have are to reflect the righteousness declared to us through faith in Christ. And yes, there are always be daily sins of which we need to repent (and that’s a primary reason you come here Sunday after Sunday). But you are not to be mastered by sin. Live out what you are declared to be.
Next, your feet are to be “sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace.” I know some of you love to go barefoot, and so do I. But when it comes to going into battle with the “cosmic powers of darkness” you must have on your feet with laces tied at all times the gospel of peace: the good news that you have peace with God, through Christ. The peace that surpasses all understanding. The peace that quells the soul in times of battle, trials and affliction. And it is footwear that allows you to travel over there, and over there, and over there so the good news of peace you have with God can be told to that neighbor over there, and over there, and over there, a peace he can have as well. Evangelism.
Then there is “the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” Faith. Trust in Christ and his word. It is one thing to “know” who Christ is. It is another thing to trust him. It is one thing to “know” what the word of God says. It is another thing to believe or trust in the word of God. Faith is holding on to. Faith is clinging to. When you see your sin, the worst thing you can do is trust in yourself. No, you cling to Christ, for he alone forgives. When you are under spiritual attack from your flesh, the world, from demons and Satan, you cling to the Rock, you cling to the Mighty Fortress, you cling to the all-powerful, crucified, risen, and ascended Christ. And when you do so, whatever Satan shoots at you will, no matter how fiery it may be, no matter how lethal it may appear, it will lose its power and never reach its target.
There is “the helmet of salvation” that you wear on your head. I have told you before I often ask people if they are sure of going to heaven when the die. And the answer almost always is, “I hope so.” In other words, there is uncertainty. But one of the basic elements of Christian salvation – of wearing the helmet of salvation – is certainty. If you are wearing this helmet, there is a certainty, you have the confident expectation, of salvation. And that is because your salvation has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with Christ. What every single person should do, and perhaps deep down knows he should do, but cannot do, Christ did for him. “I should love my neighbor as myself, but I do not. I know I should fear, love, and trust in God above all things, but I do not.” But what you cannot do, Christ did. And what you can pay for only by an eternity in hell, Christ paid for completely in his horrific hours spent on the cross. Your salvation is certain because it is based, built, established, and founded on Christ alone. This is the helmet you are to wear.
Finally, there is “the sword of the Spirit—which is the word of God.” The writer of Hebrews tells us, “For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow.” (Heb. 4:12). Think about the amazing testimonies within the Bible of the power of the word of God: With his word God created everything out of nothing. With the word of God Moses miraculously delivers the Israelites from Egypt. With the word of God Jesus fends off Satan when he is tempted. With his words Jesus heals, raises from the dead, and delivers people from demon possession. With the word of the gospel, people are born again and given new life. And with the word of God, Jesus on the last day will cause all the dead to rise from the grave. You have that powerful word. You have the Bible. This is why Martin Luther said,
These three enemies [the devil, the world, and our flesh] grant us no rest; every one draws us to his way of living in order to make sure that we forget God. To combat them we have nothing but God’s Word. With it we defend and exercise ourselves in the true faith against these three powerful enemies. But God assures us that we shall fare well and meet with success if we diligently read, hear, speak, and keep His Word. That means we shall win through the Word.
I want to make two final points regarding this full armor of God. The first is warning. If you do not take up the full armor of God, or if you put these weapons down, if you set aside these pieces of armor, you are putting yourself at risk, you are opening yourself up to “the schemes of the devil, the rulers, the authorities, the cosmic powers of this darkness, to the evil, spiritual forces in the heavens” and you will lose in this war. You will die in your sins. Do not do this.
But the other point is one of greatest comfort. Every single piece of armor is related to or is Christ himself. Jesus said, “I am…the truth.” (John 14:6). Paul tells us that Christ has become “our righteousness” (1 Cor. 1:30). The angel told the shepherds that Jesus is the good news and is our peace with God. (Luke 2:10-11, 14; Rom. 5:1). We read over and over again that true faith is in Christ (Phil 3:9). The Bible tells us that Christ is our salvation (Ps. 68:19; 2 Tim. 2:10). And the apostle John tells us that Jesus is the word made flesh (John 1:14). What this means is that if you want to wear the full armor of God in order to stand and win, you simply go to Christ in all his fullness, in all his majesty, in all his power, in all his mercy, in all his free and unconditional forgiveness. Where you find Christ – and you find him in word and sacrament – there you find the full armor of God. And being found in Christ, you will stand and you will win.
Amen.
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