The Armor of God: Introduction

This is the first segment of 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.

Paul has just finished giving a lot of specific instructions to different people in all sorts of different situations or stages of life in what is often called a household code. He's given instructions to wives, husbands, children, and slaves, pointing in all of them to Christ as their great example, and not just their example but their Savior. Now Paul turns to give some concluding words of encouragement to everyone before ending his letter, and he writes here one of the most well-known and stunningly beautiful passages of the Bible on the armor of God.
As a young and inexperienced preacher this is one of those passages that I look at with wonder, and ask myself, "How am I supposed to preach on something like that? What can I say that could even come close to doing justice to it?" I think it's possible that a lot of young pastors steer away from passages like this for that very reason, and I feel tempted to myself. But I heard it once from a preacher I admire that perhaps there's a sense in which preaching the great passages of Scripture even as a young preacher is just the experience that one needs in order to be humbled before the Word of God. It's easy for us who preach the Word, and all of us who read it, to exalt ourselves over the Bible rather than to be humbled under it. And so as always when I preach but particularly with this passage, it is my hope that the Word of God will be magnified in your eyes, while the word of men is diminished and put in its proper place.
Back in chapter 5, verses 15-16 of Ephesians, Paul commanded the church at Ephesus, "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil." He tells us as believers to be very careful about how we walk, about how we live our lives. He tells us to not be unwise but to be wise, to make the best use of the time, to redeem it in the best way possible. And the reason that he gives us is that the days are evil. The days are evil.
I've been thinking recently about the passing of time. Even now as the summer draws to a close, it feels far faster than I could have anticipated. Our series through Ephesians has gone by so quickly. And many of you, I am sure, know far better than I how fast the days and months and years go by, how time has wings and flits away. It is gone before we know it, and all too often it is wasted. It never returns, the clock can never really be unwound. Time passes out of reach and is gone. Paul explains for us that it's important for us to be aware of the passing nature of time, because of the fact that the days are evil. If we lived in an idyllic heavenly land, if we lived in a paradise of summer days, there would be know need to be vigilant in our approach to time. But that is not the land we live in, is it. This is a war zone, and a slight misstep, a slight loss of vigilance, a slight irreverence about the day or the hour and there may be great consequences in the battle that rages about us.