The Armour of God (2)

 

Ephesians 6:14-16


                 

Introduction:

      In C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters, the senior devil wrote to his junior devil, “The fact that ‘devils’ are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that he therefore cannot believe in you.”

      Today, we may not deny the devil’s existence; instead we take the agnostic position. When we think of devil, we often associate it with superstition, or mystery, or certain character in a movie. Then we brush it aside not take it seriously.

      In our past study of the book of Ephesians, we have learned how God brings his children together to form a new community, a new society. In this community, we are all equal and we are meant to live in harmony with each other. There is harmony in the Christian fellowship, harmony between husbands and wives, parents and children. This is how we are meant to live in this New Society. This is how we are to restore God's glory in our lives.

      However, on the other hand, we also know how difficult it is in practice. Instead of a loving and nurturing environment, we engage in power struggles at church and in the privacy of our families. Often we contribute such failures to human weaknesses. Certainly our sinful nature is not conducive to harmony with others. Our pride and selfishness always come in the way. Instead of a self-giving love, we are constantly grabbing for ourselves.

      As Paul concludes this letter, he emphatically reminds his reader that besides human weakness and sinfulness, there is also the devil that is working feverishly to destroy what God has built and intended. He is evil, powerful and cunning. Paul opens our eyes to the equipment God has prepared for us. In this passage is a simple truth. That is, because God has given us his armor, therefore we can stand firm against the devil’s attack. In our last sermon, we studied the belt of truth. Today, we’ll look at the breastplate of righteousness, sandals of peace and shield of faith. 

I.    We are to equip ourselves with the breastplate of righteousness to stand firm against the devil’s attack.

 

A breastplate is part of the clothing a Roman soldier wears to protect his chest area. To the Christians, it is the breastplate of righteousness. Paul often uses this word, righteousness, in terms of justification, meaning being right with God. What does this protect us from?

Satan is also called the adversary and Devil, the accuser. In the book of Job we read about the devil coming into God's presence and accusing Job. In Romans 8:33, “Who will bring any charges (accuse) against those whom God has chosen?” The devil is the one who brings charges against us. What kind of charges?

I think of a college student coming to the pastor’s office for counseling. He held a big black bible tightly to make him feel secure with God. Another more mature  Christian tells the pastor that because of his failures in life, and lack of spiritual vitality, he is wondering if he is really a Christian. Another person struggling with long term depression asks, “Can a true Christian feel so hopeless for so long?” Or being told by someone that because of our mode of baptism, we may not be truly saved. The devil accuses and questions our relationship with God, if we are truly his children.

How are we to stand firm against such accusations? Righteousness. Let me explain this. No one can be righteous before God. We are separated from God because of our sins. Then God sent his son Jesus Christ into the world. He kept all the laws therefore, he was perfect and righteous. When he was on the cross, God placed our sins on him. When we believe in Jesus Christ, God places his righteousness upon us. John 1:12, “凡接待他的、就是信他名的人、他就賜他們權柄、作 神的兒女”, Romans 10:10, “因為人心裡相信、就可以稱義.口裡承認、就可以得救.”, Romans 5:1, “我們既因信稱義、就藉著我們的主耶穌基督、得與 神相和”. You see, by faith in Jesus Christ, we become righteous before God.

When we are attacked, our response is: I am a child of God, not because of how I feel or because of my merit (which I have none), but because of my faith in Jesus Christ. No one can accuse or condemn me anymore.

This word ‘righteousness’, also carries the meaning of moral righteousness. In the OT it is referred to as God's righteousness. We are to treat others righteously; that is with respect, dignity and equality. The book of Proverbs is full of instructions on the characteristics of a righteous person. Eph4:24, “並且穿上新人.這新人是照著 神的形像造的、有真理的仁義、和聖潔。”, 5:9, “光明所結的果子、就是一切良善、公義、誠實.”

Our world does not have a good track record on this. We had the awful slave trade in the 18th century. The abuse of laborers in the 19th century leads to the rise of communism. In the 20th and 21st century, we have the killing of unborn infants. In recent years in China, many young girls from the rural villages were deceived and brought to the big cities to be sold as prostitutes. Then there are those infamous snakeheads bringing people from coastal cities in china to US through extortion of money. Then, in many families, we see spouses being treated like second-class citizens, without any dignity and respect.

Yes, whenever we see such unrighteous acts around us, it reminds us of our human capacity to wrong another person. Yet lurking behind such human cruelty, we also see the fingerprint of the evil one.

When we put on the breastplate of righteousness, we are to stand up and speak against such injustice and inequality around us. In 1787, a 27-year-old William Wilberforce of England vowed that God had given him two tasks: the suppression of the Slave Trade and the reformation of manners. He was known as a man with a deeply held, personal faith in Jesus Christ. Throughout his entire life, he gave himself to this task of suppression of Slave Trade. Finally 46 years later and only three days before his death, the bill for the abolition of Slavery was passed in the House of Commons.

When we have the breastplate of righteousness, we are to stand up and protect those innocent lives that are being killed before birth. We are to speak out against the inhumane treatment of the young and innocent both here and back home. We are to protect our loved homes from being mistreated, abused, physically and verbally, from those who may be in our own family.

Faith is not just something in our mind. It must not be compartmentalized to certain area of life. Our faith in God must permeate every aspect of our lives. Our righteousness before God goes hand in hand with moral righteousness before men. Forgiveness of sin cannot be separated from the integrity of conduct.

II.   We are to equip ourselves with the sandals of peace to stand firm against the devil’s attack

The next piece of armor is the shoes. We all know how important shoes are to us. There are shoes for running, walking, basketball, soccer, football, tennis, dancing and you name it. Not only the right kind for the right occasion, but also the right comfort. The best shoes are the ones you don’t even notice you are wearing them, yet giving you the support you need for the task. Here we read about the gospel of peace as shoes. There are two possible meanings to it.

1. Gospel of peace provides us with a firm foundation.

      The gospel of peace means the good news that we can be at peace with God. Resulting from this, we can also be at peace with ourselves and with others. When I am at peace with God, I will be more effective in resisting those temptations to pull me away from God. When I am at peace with myself, I am more capable of making the right decisions. Dr. Xu once said, “When you are confused (心神不定), the best thing is not to make any decisions.”

      When I am at peace with my spouse, then we will be able to withstand those external negative forces that tend to pull us apart.

      The gospel of peace enables us to stand firm in an uncertain world. 

2. Messenger of the gospel of peace.

      In several other bibles, this verse is also translated as “ready to announce the gospel of peace.” Isaiah 52:7, “那報佳音、傳平安、報好信、傳救恩的、對錫安說、你的 神作王了.這人的腳登山何等佳美,”. Eph 2:14-15, “因他使我們和睦、〔原文作因他是我們的和睦〕將兩下合而為一、拆毀了中間隔斷的牆.而且以自己的身體、廢掉冤仇、就是那記在律法上的規條.為要將兩下、藉著自己造成一個新人、如此便成就了和睦.”; Eph2:17, “並且來傳和平的福音給你們遠處的人、也給那近處的人.” And then in a parallel passage, Col 4:5-6, “你們的言語要常常帶著和氣、好像用鹽調和、就可知道該怎樣回答各人,” These verses suggest that we are to be ready to bring the gospel of peace to wherever we go.

      Sharing the gospel of peace is not limited to certain individuals. It is a part of the Christians armor. No matter where we are, we are to be ready to share with others this gospel of peace. This is not just a defensive weapon, but an offensive one.

III.  We are to equip ourselves with an unswerving faith inGod to stand firm against the devil’s attack.

The shield mentioned in vs16 is the long kind, used to protect the entire body against arrows. Here the arrows are described as flaming ones, referring to its deadly force.

What kind of attack? We mentioned accusation, injustice and immorality. We can also think of false guilt, doubting God's goodness, fear of uncertainty and lustful temptations.

How do we defend ourselves? The shield of Faith. We hear a lot of talks on having faith. We are told to have faith when we are sick; have faith when we feel discouraged; have faith when our circumstances seem to be out of control. But faith in what? Often we mean to have faith that God will change our circumstances in the way we want. And when our external circumstances remain unchanged, we begin to wonder if we don’t have enough faith. Certainly God can change our external circumstances. But if our understanding of the bible is correct, the bible teaches us that we are to have faith in who God is. We are to have faith in his words, in his promises. Whether or not He changes our circumstances is his prerogative.

When the devil attacks us with that terrible feeling of loneliness, we are to believe that our God will never forsake us. He is always by our side. 

When he attacks us with the fear of what the future will hold for us, especially in this economic down turn, when we see our investment in stocks for future retirement literally evaporating before our eyes, we are to have faith in a God who cares for us. Even though we walk through the waters and fires of life, he is always there with us.

 When we feel the deep darkness of depression, we are to hold on to that faith in a loving God. Even in the deepest and darkest pit, he has never left us alone.

When we are attacked with the guilty feeling over our past sins, we are to have faith in the God who has already forgiven us. Psa 103:12, “東離西有多遠、他叫我們的過犯、離我們也有多遠.

When our circumstances are bleak and discouraging, when we feel mistreated and hurt by those close to us, we have faith in the God who is loving, caring, faithful and good.

This is the shield of faith. Faith in a powerful, sovereign, faithful and loving God. This is how we can stand firm against arrows of doubt, darkness, discouragement and despair.

Conclusion:

In recent years, with the increasing awareness of the spiritual realm, we often associate the devil’s work with the supernatural phenomenon. Therefore, the defense against the devil tends to involve extended time of prayer or fasting. Certainly prayer and fasting are all important means of resisting and overcoming the evil one. Jesus himself states that there are times when one has to fight the evil spirit with prayer and fasting.

On the other hand, from the passage we studied this morning, we learn that the devil’s attack on us sometimes is very ordinary. If it is constantly supernatural events, it will heighten our awareness. But his schemes include attacking us through ordinary means. Such as arousing us to doubt our secure relationship with God (am I really a child of God?); tempting us to treat others as an object, without respect and dignity, yielding to dishonesty, unethical and immoral behaviors, doubting God's goodness and faithfulness to us when we are in life’s dark valleys.

Sometimes it’s so ordinary that it’s hard to distinguish if this is from the devil or human weaknesses. The bible is not a handbook telling us that such and such behaviors are from the devil, and others are from human frailty. Therefore, for us to try to define and put them into nice categories is a fruitless attempt.

However, the bible is very clear in telling us the kind of armor we are to put on to stand firm against the devil’s attack.  The armory includes our right relationship with God, the forgiveness of sins and moral integrity, being ready to share the gospel with others and taking hold of the gospel of peace to give us a firm standing. Our weapons also include an unswerving faith in the true, loving and faithful God. This is how we can be strong in the midst of a spiritual battle.

Rev. William Hsueh   Sep.09, 2001    Houston Chinese Church,  Houston, Texas