The Armor of God: How to Fight God's Enemies 1

This is the fourth segment in my sermon entitled, "The Armor of God", delivered to Marion Park on 8/15/09. Before reading on make sure you've read Ephesians 6:10-20.

II. How to Fight God's Enemies

Proclaiming the gospel is only one of the ways that we take on God's enemies, and so Paul goes on to fill in more detail for us about how to fight God's enemies in the next section. How does each piece of God's armor help us to fight the devil and his minions? Let's look at that now in verses 14-17.

(Eph 6:14-17) "Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,"

Now we need to understand this catalog of the pieces of God's armor as more than just a list of things to try harder at. Paul's not just saying try harder to be truthful, work harder at being righteous, grit your teeth into being more peaceful and more ready to share the gospel with people, try really really hard to have faith, tell yourself over and over again that your saved, memorize a million Bible verses for every possible temptation that the devil could bring at you. But why not? Why isn't that what Paul's saying? Well, in order to understand why this isn't just a list of things that we have to do, it's helpful to know one of the many passages of the OT that Paul's drawing from here. This catalog of armor does line up well with what the average Roman soldier might wear as many have pointed out, but Paul is actually drawing more specifically from an OT way of describing God. Let me read for you from Isaiah 59.

(Isaiah 59:15-17)
The LORD saw it, and it displeased him
that there was no justice.
¹⁶ He saw that there was no man,
and wondered that there was no one to intercede;
then his own arm brought him salvation,
and his righteousness upheld him.
¹⁷ He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
and a helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,
and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. (Read 2x)

This means that instead of being about all that we have to do on our own, or in our own strength, this passage is all about what God has done, specifically what Jesus did. There was no one doing justice on the earth, and even with all the prophets, like Isaiah, there was no one to intercede, no one that could really mediate between God and rebel humanity. So God himself became a man, he added humanity to his divinity, and his own arm brought salvation for him, his own righteousness upheld him, when he died a sinner's death, smitten and afflicted for our transgressions. With his own strength he bore our iniquities and carried our sorrows in his own body on the cross. He put on righteousness as a breastplate, but he took a spear in his side so that we might receive that breastplate as a gift. He put on the helmet of salvation, but instead he let a crown of thorns pressed down cruelly into his head, so that our heads might be protected by the assurance of the free gift of salvation. Jesus put on this armor as garments of vengeance, and he fought and defeated the devil and his army of demons, rescuing us from their hold, and bringing us out as captives of war. And he did none of it begrudgingly, but he was zealous to do it, wrapping himself in zeal as a cloak, he did it willingly, for love.