The Full Armour of God 2

picking up where we left off last week
the full armor of God
part 2 still on Ephesians chapter 6 the
verses 10 to 18 I'm going to suggest we
just read it together this morning would
you be willing to just add your voices
to my voice as we read the scripture
portion beginning at verse 10 finally be
strong in the Lord and in his mighty
power put on the full armor of God so
that you can take your stand against the
devil's schemes for our struggle is not
against flesh and blood but against the
rulers
against the authorities
against the powers of this dark world
and against the spiritual forces of evil
in the heavenly realms
therefore put on the full armor of God
so that when the day of evil comes you
may be able to stand your ground and
after you have done everything to stand
stand firm then with a belt of truth
buckled around your waist with a
breastplate of righteousness in place
and with your feet fitted with the
readiness that comes from the gospel of
peace in addition to all this take up
the shield of faith with which you can
extinguish all the flaming arrows of the
evil one take the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the Spirit which is the
word of God and pray in the spirit on
all occasions with all kinds of prayers
and requests with this in mind be alert
and always keep on praying for all the
again Lord as we pick up this theme of
spiritual warfare this morning and you
remind us once again that our battles
are never merely against flesh and blood
but against the rulers the authorities
the spiritual forces of wickedness in
heavenly places
we know
that we need your protection and your
grace so that through it all we may
remain standing
help us Lord in our own individual lives
to recognize where the battle eyes
help us to avail ourselves of the full
armor of God putting on each piece with
prayer and may we individually and
together and with your people all over
the world
remain faithful to you so that in the
end we will see Satan cast out from
heaven entirely and completely and the
kingdoms of this world will again have
become the kingdom of our Lord and of
his Christ
forgive us Lord where we fail help us
never to be discouraged but to stand
firm in faith knowing that the good work
that you've begun in us you will surely
bring to completion in the day of Jesus
Christ we ask it in his name and for his
so I
left you last week with a question what
does the Apostle Paul mean when he says
here in Ephesians 6 verse 15 stand firm
then with your feet fitted with the
readiness that comes
from the gospel of peace how many of you
come on
come on I see a handful here or there
and one in the back there that is
raising two hands
that doesn't make up for the many of you
that didn't do your job
but as I said it's one of the most
difficult verses in this particular
passage and the one subject to the most
different interpretations the most
common interpretation that is given to
this passage is that it refers to our
need to be ready to share the gospel
regardless of what the devil throws at
us the readiness that comes from the
gospel of peace I'm not ready to rule
that out entirely because if you read on
in the passage you discover that he does
indeed invite people to pray for him
Paul does so that he can proclaim the
gospel freely listen two verses 19 and
verse 20 he says pray also for me that
whenever I open my mouth words will be
given me so that I will fearlessly make
known the mystery of the gospel for
which I am an ambassador in Chains
prayed that I may declare it fearlessly
as I should so there is that element
where Paul says pray for me so that I
will not be hindered in proclaiming the
gospel Paul at this time is in jail for
the faith as you know and so all of the
dynamics that come along with that are
part and parcel of his life now that
having been said
the context of these verses in Ephesians
6 is not evangelism the context of these
verses in Ephesians chapter 6 is that we
should remain standing firm in our
faithfulness to the Lord regardless of
what it is the devil may be throwing
listen again the verses 14 and 15 stand
firm then with a belt of truth buckled
around your waist with a breastplate of
righteousness in place and with your
feet fitted with the readiness that
comes from the gospel of peace stand
firm then the whole emphasis of the
passage is after you've done everything
no matter what the devil is try to throw
at you remain standing
firm
shoes are an important part of that and
for us to do justice to what it is that
Paul is trying to get at here it helps
to begin by understanding
standard issue footwear for the Roman
soldier going all the way back to
Alexander the Great the chosen Footwear
for soldiers in those days was the lowly
sandal and that sandal looked like this
he'd had a thick rubber a thick leather
sole it had leather straps that attached
it to the foot and then on the bottom of
course and you can see that it had
hobnails to enable soldiers to remain
standing
those shoes served a three-fold purpose
number one to protect the soldiers feet
that's what choose do one of the
military strategies in those days was to
plant sharp spikes just below the soil
in the hope that an enemy soldier would
step on it penetrate his foot and then
be out of commission because of the
injury and perhaps the infection that
would follow so thick leather soles were
an important part for protecting the
feet not to mention the different
terrains that a soldier would have to
walk on or fight on second function of
the sandal was to provide solid footing
that's the purpose of these hobnails if
you've ever played rugby or soccer or
football then you know how critical it
is to have solid footing on the field
you start sliding around and you're sunk
if you've ever tried walking on ice
doesn't matter what you have on your
feet you know how hard it is to get Rex
in one of my memories from my youth is
trying to drive the car on a pei dirt
road after an exceptionally heavy
freezing rain situation and I have never
seen the likes of this before there was
so much ice on the road that it was
impossible to keep the car on the center
of the road without sliding off to the
side and
we've all had those kind of experiences
there's nothing scarier than having no
friction between yourself and the ground
that you're on third reason then is of
course and that's almost the opposite of
standing firm and that is to enable
quick movement while it's important for
a soldier to stand firm and not slide
around it is equally important to be
nimble on his feet because the battle
will change the situation will change
you can be thrown off balance and you
need to be able to easily in quickly and
unencumbered move your feet so those are
the three practical purposes of the
sandal for the Roman soldier that Paul
picks up on here and then applies to us
in a spiritual lesson and in the time
that remains let's see if we can walk
our way through at least some of these
first of all them
what Paul is saying is that our walk
needs to be protected
Psalm 1 the verses 12 and 3 very
familiar passage I trust
blessed is the man who does not walk in
the counsel of the wicked or stand in
the way of sinners or sit in the seat of
markers but his delight is in the law of
the Lord and on his law he meditates day
and night he is like a tree planted by
streams of water which yields its fruit
in season and whose leaf does not wither
whatever he does he
prospers
now Satan the great enemy of her Souls
isn't particularly interested in seeing
us prosper and if there is some way in
which he can compromise our walk with
the Lord then he is going to do that to
the fullness of his ability I believe
that one way in which he does that is he
makes us careless where we walk and with
whom we hang out how many of us haven't
been in situations or know of people who
look good in situations whose walk with
the Lord was compromised because they
happen to hang out with friends who did
not join them on that journey sometimes
people are married to such people and
you have a
unequally yoked relationship and more
often than not it leads people away from
the truth and the Living God the book of
Proverbs is a lot to say about that
here's one passage that really
my son that should read proverbs 1 verse
10 my son if sinners entice you do not
give in to them do not go along with
them do not set foot on their paths
Satan loves to trip us up on our walk
with Christ so that we are no longer a
danger to him and a danger to his
kingdom another way in which he does
that and I've seen him do this
wat is in creating relational chaos in
our lives especially in those
relationships that are close to our
hearts I
mentioned last week how in the early
years of my ministry I
discovered that I could never fight with
my wife longer than six days because
some day would come around and I'd have
to be reconciled by then and a number of
you good pastoral folks took me aside
afterwards to remind me about that verse
in Ephesians about not letting the Sun
go down on your anger
and my temptation was to say well listen
in northern Alberta it takes a long time
for the Sun to go down
like six days easily
of course I'm joking but the reality is
that it takes time to grow into biblical
obedience and even now I'm sure most of
his have days where
where the chaos at home spreads into
our
ability to do our work one of the women
here came to me last week told a great
story about how before she got married
your father told her never to let the
Sun go down on her wrath and to make
sure that they were reconciled before
they went to bed and and one night or
her husband chose to sleep in the couch
so what did she do well she made her bed
beside the couch and
spent the night there and not surprising
that's been a strong solid marriage when
you take scripture that
seriously but if the devil can create
chaos between husband and wife or
turmoil between parents and children
then you know how hypocritical you feel
very quickly to be out there trying to
do something for the Gospels sake when
your own life is in turmoil isn't entry
that's why our feet need to be shod or
equipped with the readiness that comes
from the gospel of peace the gospel has
to do its work relationally so that we
have peace in our walk as much as we can
turmoil sometimes is unavoidable but the
quicker we deal with it the better we
can remain standing as soldiers of the
cross that's why Paul says in Ephesians
5 verse 15 and this is from the Revised
Standard Version look carefully then how
you walk not as unwise men but as wise
making the most of the time because the
days are evil
not hard to get into a fight not hard to
pick a fight but unless you're very very
careful it will compromise your ability
to stand for Jesus so
that's one less than we draw from it and
then there's second lesson and that is
this we need to be able to stand our
ground and again that is the thesis of
this whole passage it repeats
consistently the verses 13 14 and 15
therefore put on the form or have gone
so that when the day of evil comes you
want may be able to stand your ground
and after have after you have done
everything to stand stand firm then with
your feet fitted with the readiness that
comes from the gospel of peace stand
firm now to stand firm
clearly means you hold your ground no
matter how much pressure is apply to get
you to try to move and
it means you remain faithful to the Lord
and faithful to what he stands for
regardless of what comes at you from
whom and from what direction now last
week I told you the story well the
distinguished professor speaking at a
church and grand rapid
sharing his story of how he came to
embrace same-sex marriage as an issue of
justice in the kingdom of God and
what bothered me about his presentation
as I read summaries of it was not only
his bad use of science he's way behind
the times in terms of what he is quoting
and his bad use of Scripture his
exegesis was atrocious but what bothered
me the most is here he has an audience
of 300 people and how many of those
people are going away with their
attitudes their minds changed on a very
contentious topic in our day of age
simply because they have been bowled
over by a distinguished professor is not
sure
how important it is for God's people to
be able to stand no matter what comes at
them in 1 Corinthians chapter 16 Paul
puts it this way he says be on your
guard stand firm in the faith be men of
courage be strong
now the
challenge about standing strong is what
are you going to stand for so I want to
try to give you this morning three areas
where I believe God's people in this day
and age especially need to be very clear
about what it means to be strong because
you see there's lots of people who are
strong for all of the wrong reasons in
all the wrong places because they're
driven by fear or because they're just
stubborn or they can change with the
times
how do you find the balance between
being nimble on your feet and yet at the
same time remaining firmly committed to
the ground that God has entrusted to you
first place
where we need to stand firm I believe in
this day and age is on the authority of
Scripture let me say it again the
authority of Scripture Paul writing to
Timothy all Scripture is god-breathed
and as useful for teaching rebuking
correcting and training in righteousness
so that the man or the woman of God may
be thoroughly equipped for every good
work
God breathed means the Holy Spirit
inspired the writers of Scripture
to write down his word and his message
the Apostle Peter
says the same thing in
second Peter chapter 1 verses 20 and 21
he says above all you must understand
that no prophecy of Scripture came about
by a prophet's own interpretation they
didn't just sit down and make this up
for prophecy never had its origin in the
will of man but men spoke from God as
they were carried along by the Holy
Spirit
the Bible claims from one end to the
other that it is the authoritative Word
of God
who breathed his message into each of
the bible writers
each bringing his own personality his
own grammatical style his own flavor to
the message it's always a combination of
the divine and the human
but the Bible is the authoritative Word
of God are only guide for faith and life
that has been the historic traditional
biblical position
devil doesn't like that very much
because he knows that as long as we
listen to God
we're going to be smart enough not to
listen to him and so from the very
beginning of history Satan has been
trying to undermine
the authority of thus saith the Lord go
back with me to the beginning of Genesis
the fall of Adam and Eve
how does the devil approached Eve he
challenges her with this question did
God really say you must not eat from any
tree in the garden
and it's a fascinating question
because it undermines her trust in God
and challenges what God has said because
the reality is God did not say you
cannot eat from any tree in the garden
God in fact said you can each from all
of the trees in the garden
except this one why not this one because
it's bad for you it's going to kill you
so Satan turns around the one negative
command that God has given to Adam and
Eve to keep them safe and he says see
you cannot really trust God to be
interested in your well-being and so
when their woman responds that God has
said they could eat from all of the
trees but not this one then of course he
comes back with this line in Genesis 3 4
and 5
you will not surely die for God knows
that when you eat of it your eyes will
be opened and you will be like God
knowing good and evil
and I've taught on this before but it is
so critical to get this right in this
day and age what really is the issue
here
the issue is one of what the
Philosopher's would call epistemology
how do you arrive at the norm of good
and evil
God says you arrive at the knowledge of
good and evil by listening to me
you're only barely on the scene you
don't know the complexity of the
universe I'm giving you guidelines to
live by not to make your life miserable
but to keep you safe because I'm good
and because I love you
the devil comes along turns out around
and he says no God is not good he
doesn't have your good interests at
heart you cannot trust what he says to
be best for you how do you arrive at a
knowledge of good and evil
you have to trust your own
instincts
you can tell for yourself what is right
and what is wrong and so here you get
here you get the amazing / version of
this story now listen to me carefully
because this is where temptation always
will go here's this tree the knowledge
of good and evil
God says eat from it and it's going to
kill you and
it's going to make life a mess for
everybody that comes after you and all
you have to do is look at the world to
see what kinda messed that produced
now the woman
looks at the same tree
ignoring what God has said because she
no longer trusts him and what does she
see is it a tree that looks bad is it a
tree that's going to hurt her is it a
tree that's going to kill her
no the Bible says it was good for food a
delight to the eyes and it was desirable
to make one wise
so what did she do
she reached out and she ate and she gave
to her husband and he ate
now listen to me from that day this
the battle is who decides how we should
live
who decides what is right and who
decides what is wrong is it God who made
us redeems us who has our best interests
in mind who gives us his revealed wheel
and the pages of the scripture or is it
our own wisdom our own Sense experience
our own keen insight
the moment you go down that path
you are subject to deception
because the devil will play you and
what God said will kill you now looks
like it's the most wonderful thing in
the world
and how many people haven't broken the
bonds of marriage how many people
haven't gotten themselves stuck into all
kinds of trouble
because they never saw it coming it was
tasty it was delicious and not until
afterwards did they catch themselves as
having been caught in the devil's snare
from that day to this
Satan has been at work
trying to water down the authority of
Scripture and placing our experience
above the revelation of God just the
other day got a email from a friend of
mine who's part of a church elsewhere
part of a Bible study group they've been
studying this particular book that is
trying to open up their minds to
different
interpretations of classical passages in
Scripture and
she summarizes the book this way and and
these are her words she
summarizes the book is saying if we as
Christians now listen to this if we as
Christians truly believe
but Jesus is among us still guiding us
to proclaim faithfully and live into
God's saving rain then on what basis
might we claim that Jesus could never
lead us to understand the issues of
human sexuality
differently from the New Testament
writers
I'll read it again if we as Christians
truly believe that Jesus is among us
still guiding us to proclaim faithfully
and to
guiding us to proclaim faithfully and
live in to God saving rain that on what
basis might we claim that Jesus could
never lead us to understand the issues
of human sexuality
differently from the New Testament
writers what she's saying what the
author of this book is saying as she
interprets it and I think it's accurate
is
that our
experience Trump's the New Testament
writers
revelation of what is right and
so now we can argue that because we know
things about human sexuality that Paul
did not know because Paul was the
product of his day and age because it'll
even go so far as to say because we know
things that Jesus didn't know therefore
our
interpretation Trump's the revelation of
the Bible
you see where that leads
that leads you into a place where you
can make the Bible say just about
anything because
our experience tells us what God said is
bad is good because we know better and
that's the road to disaster and that's
why holding on to the authority of
Scripture is so critical and I know
somebody's going to say well you know
it's hard to understand the Bible we've
got all these different interpretations
and that's true but I always come back
to this verse of Jesus in John chapter 7
verse 17 if anyone chooses to do God's
will he will find out whether my
teaching comes from on or whether I
speak on my own
the Bible was inspired by the Holy
Spirit has to be interpreted through the
Holy Spirit and if we come to scripture
not trying to impose our agenda on it to
make it say whatever we wanted to say
but if we come to Scripture with a
desire that says Lord show me your way
so that i can better love you and serve
you then god will guide his people into
all truth and he will help us to
understand the spiritual principles that
apply and that are universal across the
barn
so let me ask you the question
what is your attitude to the authority
of Scripture I told you the story crisis
moments in my own life in my seminary
day standing under a tree at Calvin
seminary lon next to the
to the seminary pawned under a big tree
with my Bible in my hand this is in the
middle of the darkest night of my soul
didn't even know of God existed let
alone whether he really loved me but I
said Lord here's your word
by faith I take it to be your
authoritative Word and to the best of my
ability I want to live by it till the
end of my days and if I come to the end
of my days and if I've been wrong in
trusting it then so be it that is the
chance I'm willing to take because
you see I couldn't live with myself in
the way that I see so many people live
with Scripture they take literally what
they want to take literally and whatever
they don't want to take literally they
just ignore it is all God's Word and we
need to have a submissive attitude to
the Word of God be with me that's what
keeps the church from sliding down the
tube and marrying the spirit of the age
and I've often said if it takes this
many wise people
to interpret verses in the Bible as
demeaning something else than what they
obviously mean there is something wrong
with our attempts at trying to rewrite
Scripture it's really not that
complicated if our hearts are set on go
on alright that's one area where we
cannot afford to compromise i believe
and where God is calling his people to
stand and where Satan is always trying
to pull the ground out from underneath
us second area very closely related to
that is what I would call the centrality
of the cross
listen to Paul in 1 Corinthians 22 I
resolved to know nothing while i was
with you
except Jesus Christ and him crucified
and then earlier on in verse 18 the
message of the cross is foolishness to
those who are perishing but to us who
Paul took everything that he knew before
he met Jesus called it all garbage for
the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus
Christ and the priority of his life was
proclaiming the message of the Cross so
let's talk about that for a moment
because what is the message of the Cross
that he says is the power of God unto
salvation
well you've seen this many times but in
short the message of the Cross is that
God is severely superbly holy can't
stand seeing we because of Adam's sin
and because of our own sin have fallen
we are under Satan's Dominion by nature
were alienated from God and there is no
way the two of us can get together on
our own it has taken the intervention of
the Lord Jesus Christ who was born into
the world lived our life died in the
cross overcame death a sin into heaven
sits at the right hand of God the Father
has poured out the Holy Spirit so that
through faith in him we might be
restored to God and the message of
Scripture is that this King Jesus
sitting at the right hand of God the
Father Almighty one day is going to come
back and he is going to rule over the
whole universe the whole world in every
knee will bow and every tongue will
confess even the ones that cuss and
curses name today that he is Lord to the
glory of God the Father that's the
message of the cross and the message of
the Cross is that if we want to get back
to God if we want to get back to life
abundant
the only way is by humbling ourselves
acknowledging our sin coming to faith in
Jesus and allowing Jesus to change us
from the inside out
that's the message of the Cross and that
message of the Cross is foolishness to
the world
even give a moment's notice to Jesus as
being the answer to every ill that
plagues humanity even when they take his
name in vain all the time and you and
just blaspheme him from one end to the
other and yet the Bible says that that's
the name that is of a very name and the
name that is going to ultimately rescue
the whole world so the message across is
foolishness to the nation's
absolute foolishness and in our society
today we're doing everything that we can
to get rid of the name of Jesus because
we just don't want him he's the stone
rejected by the Builders even today
but to those who believe the power of
God and the ability of God to change
things from the inside out and make it
near now if you know the devil at all
then you can appreciate that he's not
very happy about that
and so he is constantly trying to tone
down
the message of the cross
and he does that in so many different
ways
he does that by denying that we are
conceived and born in sin how many
people don't you know who think
fundamentally the human race is good and
if we can only get rid of poverty you
know we could only get rid of racism and
if we could only get rid of class
distinctions
then we'd have peace on earth and
goodwill towards man
many political and social agendas are
geared towards that knowledge the Bible
says it's foolishness because it's not
Satan likes to keep us living under the
delusion
but the goodness of humanity not only
because if humanity is good then we
don't need Jesus and so he comes to us
and he preaches us and other Jesus will
talk about that in just a moment another
gospel and another spirit
and
then his most clever way is to try to
persuade us that
if we somehow give some kind of
intellectual assent to Jesus that our
sins are automatically forgiven and and
we are saved and and ultimately God
loves everybody and everybody is going
to go to heaven how many times haven't
you heard that how many funerals have
you ever been to where the deceased
wasn't talked into heaven regardless of
the lives they lived I mean I had a
conversation with a family year years
ago
young fella died in a drunken accident
did not live a godly life whatsoever in
conversation with the parents they made
it very clear that they wanted me to
assure them and the congregation at the
funeral that he was saved and he was
with God and
he said well
let's just leave his destiny in the
Lord's hands
because we're in no position to judge
well they were so livid and furious they
left the church and they never been back
because that's the spirit of the age you
see the spirit of the age is that God
exists for our pleasure and that somehow
we can be reconciled to him without the
message of the Cross
victoria osteen
some of you will know how she's life to
Joe all pastors one of the biggest mega
churches in North America very affable
couple but got herself into a lot of
trouble number of years ago with this
quotation
do good she said because God wants you
to be happy when you come to church when
you worship Him you're not doing it for
God
really you're doing it for yourself
said this publicly the clips all over
the place there's a there's an edited
version of it on youtube that has Bill
Cosby with a comment at the end of that
which is really quite humorous even
though that's not actually what happened
somebody's placed that together and I
think I know what she's trying to say
but she really got it wrong
because
God doesn't exist
because he wants to make us happy
God exists because he wants us to serve
Him and if we do that in Christ
happiness will be the long-term result
we can put that code back up for just a
moment do good because God wants you to
be happy when you come to church when
you worship Him you're not doing it for
God really you're doing it for yourself
because that's what makes God happy
it's all about me and not about
Jesus
Satan
tries to dilute the message
of the gospel and the
Apostle Paul is
adamant in all his writings that
whatever else happens we cannot afford
to compromise the message of the cross
listen to this quotation Galatians 1 6 7
8 and 9 he says to the Galatians I am
astonished that you are so quickly
deserting the one who called you with
the grace of Christ and are turning to a
different gospel which is really no
gospel at all
evidently some people are throwing you
into confusion and are trying to pervert
the gospel of Christ but even if we or
an angel from heaven
should preach a gospel other than the
one we preach to you let him be
eternally condemned as we have already
said so now I say again if anybody is
preaching to you a gospel other than
what you accepted let him be
eternally condemned
that word i mentioned last week is
anathema it literally means let him go
to hell
why is Paul so adamant why is Satan so
determined to keep us from embracing the
message of the cross
because if he can succeed in keeping us
blinded in that spot
that he can keep us away from God and he
can keep the purposes of God from being
accomplished and that is why you and I
need to learn to stand firm on the
message of the Cross I said it last week
I'll say it again whatever you listen to
teaching whenever you read a book
whenever you hear
you know direction giving out
ask yourself the question
where is Jesus and where is the cross
is this teaching calling us sinners who
are saved by grace or is this a teaching
that says well you know we're really not
so bad God loves us all and we're all
going to go to heaven someday that is a
false head
excuse me or that Satan uses to try to
to the truth of the gospel and even as
we stand on the authority of Scripture
we need to stand on the centrality of
the cross
so that at the end of the day
there is no compromise about how people
are saved
excuse me and how we are restored to our
relationship with God I think we'll stop
there I wanted to go on and talk about
still a third place to stand I'll just
really quickly introduce it for a moment
and that is
the importance of living out our faith
in our daily
living
because they're too
Satan would like us to compromise our
walk so that our light is
dimmed and our salt is diluted and we do
not serve as a testimony to the world
but we'll talk about that more next time
and beyond that then want to talk about
what it means to be nimble on our feet
because
even as it's important for us to know
where are the places that we cannot
stand
it's equally important to find those
places where we can be flexible because
society changes all the time and what
worked many years ago doesn't work today
and if we aren't flexible in the Holy
Spirit to make those adjustments
than what happens is that we become
you