The Full Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20)

(Originally delivered at Prince of Peace Church, Hopewell, PA on August 29-30, 2009)

Last week John talked about our rental bodies, how this flesh is just a tent, and how we shouldn't worry about death. This week we're going to talk about protecting these tents while we're still on earth. We all know about protecting ourselves, right? We wash our hands, we're supposed to, all the time to keep from transferring germs. Riding a bicycle or a motorcycle, we wear a . . . helmet. We have airbags in our cars & smoke detectors in our homes. If you're a police officer you have your bullet-proof vest. And we all know what equipment we need when we bungee jump, right? You're not into bungee jumping?

I've got a new baby! Four daughters now, but for the first time we have two under two years old. This means double protection. This means two car seats in the minivan at the same time. The infant has to be facing backwards and the toddler forward. It's really complicated, but we know how to do it.

So, we know how to protect our bodies in this world. What about our spiritual bodies, our souls? The apostle Paul says there is protection for that, too. It's called “Spiritual Armor.” Soldiers wear armor. They wear armor today. They wore armor back in Roman times.
Paul was a prisoner, watched over by Roman soldiers. When he wrote today's Bible passage, he was probably looking at his guard's armor. Armor has 6 main pieces: helmets, breastplates, belts, shoes, and they had shields and swords.

Paul attaches spiritual protection to each of these things: The helmet of salvation. The breastplate of righteousness. The belt of truth. The shoes of peace. More importantly the gospel or good news of peace. The shield of faith. The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

Why do we need this spiritual armor? Well, we needed it this week, didn't we? When we saw that pretty girl walking down the street and we thought about taking a second look. When we started gossiping about someone behind their back. When we began to doubt that Christianity is even true. With all the stuff we go through each week, temptations, doubts, guilt, fear, unexplained sickness. We should put that armor on every morning.

All those temptations, doubts, fears come from spiritual attack! Paul says in today's passage that we “do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” “Spiritual forces of evil” - that's Satan, our enemy. If you're a Christian, the enemy uses the sins of our pre-Christian life to tempt and confuse us. Ever see those old cartoons where a little devil pops up on the shoulder and whispers in the ear? And an angel is on the other shoulder whispering the opposite advice of the devil. It's kind of like that but waaaaay less cute. In the real spirit world, there are spiritual armies clashing in another dimension for our souls.

There's a great example of this in the Old Testament. Every time the king of Syria tries to attack Israel, Israel knows the plan and foils the attack. How can this be? Well, the prophet Elisha is praying to God, and God is revealing Syria's plans to Israel. The King of Syria finds this out and tries to capture Elisha. He surrounds the city with horses and chariots. Elisha's servant sees the ambush and cries out, “what shall we do?” Confidently, Elisha responds, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Elisha prayed for his servant's eyes to be opened, and behold he saw the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around. This was not a “flesh and blood” army! These were angel warriors fighting devil warriors. Spiritual armies clashing in another dimension!

Another reason why we need the armor: It helps us worship properly. We all worship. Every single one of us. God made us to worship. Even people who aren't religious. We all worship something. But are we worshiping God? Outside of America, in the third world countries, they know this. They know everyone worships something. The question there is, who or what are you worshiping? In these poorer countries, the spirit world there is not behind the scenes – it's out in the open! But here in America, we don't see much spiritual attack in the open – it's all behind the scenes. The armies of the enemy don't need to come out of the shadows. Because we're already worshiping the wrong things. We've got our Internet, our video games, our TVs, our massive amounts of pornography. We can barely get to church once a week – or just on holidays. Our focus drifts away from God.

For example many people are glued to entertainment. “We can't miss our shows.” The fall season is coming up. Let's see, I've got House on Monday, Hell's Kitchen on Tuesday, CSI New York on Wednesday, CSI Las Vegas on Thursday, Hmmm. I need to find a show for Friday. That's at least four hours of worship at the TV each week. And the national average is much higher. We get our focus off God with all these false substitutes our culture offers. So, the armor of God helps us focus on the one who gave us the armor in the first place. We worship God.

There's another reason we need the armor. We get distracted too easily. The enemy attacks us through our thoughts. You're trying to tune me out right now! Don't tune me out! I remember a time when I was sitting in rush hour traffic, and I was lost in thought. And then I start thinking about an argument I had with Cathi years ago. We got over that! We forgave each other. We gave it to Jesus. Why am I thinking about it now? Little devil on my shoulder. “Hey, remember that argument?” Or I'll just start thinking bad things about people. “You know what his problem is?” “Here's where he's going wrong. What a jerk!” Why am I thinking this? Lil' Devil again.

“Schadenfreude” is a German word. It means to take pleasure in the misery of others. Ever hear on the radio about some arrogant celebrity getting theirs, and you smile? Good! They deserved it! A friend of mine almost got a job that would allow her to travel the world. I think, “no fair!” She's never worked a day in her life! She didn't get the job after all, and I think, “good!” What evil thoughts to have! Lil' devil on the shoulder again. There are many other ways the devil sends his attacks into our life. And so God gives us armor to protect us. Do we all agree that we need the armor?

So, now how do we use the armor? We know how to use the everyday protective devices in our lives, right? During Flu Season we wash our hands more often, so that we don't transfer the germs to our children. We wipe down the toys in the nursery with anti-bacterial wipes. We properly strap the helmet on when we bike ride, because the head is the part of the body that can really get messed up on the sidewalk. We know how to properly use a seatbelt. We know the importance of buying a car with airbags. We know how to test our smoke detectors each year. We test ours every time I cook. When we're on an airplane, and the flight attendants begin the lecture, we usually tune it out. Why? Because we've heard it all before. We know what to do if something happens to the plane.

So if we know how to use protection in our physical world, how do we use God's protection in our spiritual world? When we ask Jesus into our lives, the Bible uses several images to describe what it is like. We put on a new skin. We clothe ourselves in purity, kindness and patience. We put on the armor of God. It's a way of recommitting to Jesus.

So, let's run through the armor again and think of how each of these things can help us. The helmet of salvation. Notice it's on the head, because it's something you have to keep in mind. You are saved. Lil' devil is right there on your shoulder, next to your head. He whispers in your ear, “Why would God want you? You're not really saved.” The helmet comes down, over the ear. Blocking the devil. I am saved. I accepted God's gift. Jesus died for me. It's one of the hardest things to keep in mind. God saved me from destruction. He wants me to live. He sent his son to die for me, so I could live.

What about the breastplate of righteousness? It protects your heart. You've heard the old saying, “follow your heart,” right? Well, it has a couple of different meanings. To the world, it means, "if it feels good, do it." To the Christian, it means listen to Jesus, who is in your heart. Righteousness means doing what is right. Christian freedom is freedom to do what is right, not just anything you want. When we have the freedom to do whatever we want, our sin encourages us to do what is wrong. We become slaves to our sinful nature. That's the result of, “if it feels good, do it.” God sets us free to do what is right, even if we don't want to do it. We do it because it is right. It may even hurt us. Put us at a disadvantage. But we do it because it is the right thing to do. Righteousness.

The belt of truth. I'm thinking of Batman's utility belt here. He had every gizmo and gadget on it possible. When you are confronted with lies, you've got to find the right piece of truth to counter it. Usually these truths are in the form of questions. We get lies about life from the culture all the time. The most prominent lies are when the world tells us how to raise our children. Here's a question from the utility belt: If the world knew so much about raising children, why are so many of its children wandering far from God?

The shoes of peace is a tough one, until you realize that Paul says you need feet prepared with the gospel of peace. It means we need to be able to share the good news of Jesus with someone at a moment's notice. Being ready, listening, ready for that opening. When I'm given the opportunity to share the gospel with someone, I usually find that my ready feet are running the in opposite direction. But every now and then, God makes it easy. I had a friend who complained about everything. He would go on and on about how people are so awful. My shoes of peace suddenly started itching. I jumped in with, “well, you've got the sin thing down! All you need is the salvation part, and you'll be a full-fledged Christian.” It was beautiful, only God could have pulled that one off.

The last two pieces of armor are the big ones. Paul even describes how to use the shield of faith: Use it “to ward off the slings and arrows of the evil one.” It's our first line of defense. The shield is there when the other pieces or armor aren't working too well. We need to buy time, so we throw up that shield and run. Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." This is how we combat doubt. Those mornings when we wake up and completely doubt that Christianity is real. We pick up that shield of faith and say, “I know that Christianity is real.”

Then we pick up the sword of the spirit. The Word of God. That's the Bible. We need to know that book inside and out. We read it, and it tells us why Christianity is true. The Holy Spirit points out verses that speak to our lives. The more familiar we are with the Bible, the better all the pieces of armor will work for us. If we only know a handful of verses, what good is that? Would we root for a football team that had a quarterback who knew only a couple of plays? We want a quarterback who knows as many plays as possible. When Jesus was in the wilderness, and the devil was tempting him, what happened? The devil would use scripture against Jesus, and Jesus would fling scripture right back. Lil' devil knows the Bible very well – how about us?

Finally, Paul says “Pray at all times in the Spirit.” He doesn't attach this to a piece of armor, but I think we know that prayer covers all the pieces of armor. We pray as we put on the armor. We pray before doing anything. Prayer is the way we talk to God. Reading our Bibles is how God talks to us. We've got to keep that communication line open. We've got to maintain that relationship. Through prayer and God's word we put Jesus first in our life. Through prayer and God's word we use the armor God gives us to fight spiritual battles. Let's not get defeated because we are unprepared. Put on the spiritual armor every day, and look forward to more victory in our Christian life.

Amen.