Great to be together, isn’t it, in the house of the Lord?
This song we just sang—if it is not my favorite Christian song, it is mighty close, mighty close. I remember a couple of years ago, at my father’s memorial service, we sang that song. Jerry shared a message there, and we ended his service with that song.
He was a ninety-eight-year-old World War II veteran. He was indeed a Christian soldier. But, brothers and sisters, this morning, we too are Christian soldiers. We are in the Lord’s army, aren’t we? We are fitted and ready for battle, just like the song says. We are well equipped to be in the battle.
And the glorious thing of it all is that we have an advantage here. When you think of somebody going into battle, they do not usually know the outcome. In most wars, it does not happen that way. But when we enter the fray, when we enter that struggle, and we look through the commotion and the chaos and the smoke, and we look beyond it, we see that the Lord indeed is victorious.
We know the outcome of the war. We are in the battle, and it is a struggle, but when we look beyond, we see the victory. So we are victorious this morning.
We are going to spend some time talking about that. May the Lord bless this time and use it to His glory and for our edification.
Our heavenly Father, we thank You that we can be together this morning, just to look into Your Word. Lord, as has been said aplenty this morning, we are living in a tough time, Lord, in an evil day. We need to be strengthened by Your Word, by Your encouragement, and by our being together as Your small company of believers.
So, Lord, as we look into Your Word this morning, I ask that You would help me to be clear, just to be able to express what You have given me this morning, that it would be helpful to us all.
Lord, how dependent we are upon You and upon Your Holy Spirit. Lord, we cannot do this alone. We are not able, but we have One who is able, and we lean upon You. So we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Well, everything has to have a title, though. Let me begin by telling you the title of what I am going to speak about this morning: Standing in the Full Armor of God.
Now, we all know that is to be found in the book of Ephesians. I do not think anybody is unfamiliar with that at all. That is what has been on my heart for quite a while, since all the things going on. It just seems to me that we are living in a day when we need to have the full armor of God and to utilize it.
Let me say a few things in opening, and then I am going to move on to some specific examples of those who used the full armor of God. Then I want to finish up with a few personal stories to help us understand. It always helps to take some personal things and reinforce what we have been talking about. It helps us to remember.
Paul begins the letter to the saints in Ephesus by declaring their faithfulness to Christ Jesus. He then reminds them that they have been blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing, and that they have been chosen in Him, even before the creation of the world.
In addition, according to the Lord’s good pleasure, all things in heaven and on earth will finally be brought under the headship of Christ. What a blessed greeting that is as he opens his letter to the Ephesian saints. What an encouragement. Brother Paul really wants to give them a spiritual boost, and he does so.
Those same words that you hear Paul giving to the Ephesians also apply to us. They certainly, most certainly, do. But Paul also warns them not to digress back into their old ways, back into their old sinful ways. It is a pretty stern warning there, and he challenges them to press on in the Lord.
In Ephesians 5:16, they are implored to make use of the days in which they live—not to waste the days, not to waste time—because the days are evil. We see the parallel there between what was going on in Ephesus and even today. Certainly, we can relate to that.
The days are indeed evil. A while back, Jerry, on a Wednesday night, you mentioned that we are living in the days of Noah. How true. People are going about marrying and being married, living life in many cases as if nothing is going on. They do not see the storm surrounding them. People are so oblivious to things in many ways.
But as the people of God, we understand the days that are upon us. The Lord has been so gracious to open our eyes so that we can see. We can see it from His point of view. So there is no surprise here, and certainly no surprise to God, in the days we are living in.
As a matter of fact, the Word of God clearly says in Ephesians 6:12 that we are in the midst of a struggle—a spiritual battle. We are in a spiritual battle. But as I said, though it is a battle, though it is tough, we know the outcome. The Lord Jesus has won the victory. He is enthroned above. We need not fear. We just need to press on.
That is what He is calling us to do, and that is exactly what He was calling the Ephesians to do: to press on.
Really, the battle is over the lordship of Jesus Christ. Bottom line, that is what the enemy is after. We come under attack, but he is after the Lord. He is after the testimony and the witness of the Lord in our lives. He does not want that, and he is doing everything he can to thwart the Lord in our lives. So we know what is going on. We are not unaware of his schemes.
Let me recap quickly. We have Paul opening with a commendation to the saints for their faithfulness to the Lord. Then he spends some time reinforcing and encouraging them to press on. He shows and describes all that they are in Christ—all that they are. Wonderful.
Then he exhorts them not to fall back into their sinful ways. He knows how weak we are. He knows that we can stumble and roll down the hill backwards sometimes. He knows that, but he is exhorting them to be careful not to do that. They have been delivered from many a great sin, and he wants them to press on.
He also gives them that warning and reminder: yes, the days are evil. Be awake, be alert, pay attention to what is going on around you, and do not waste the time. The days are evil, and we need to be totally aware of that—not just aware of it, but aware of how to live in it.
Lastly, he gives them a word of admonishment. Now, I picked that word admonish, and that sounds kind of harsh, does it not? It almost sounds as though he might be berating them, or perhaps it has a negative connotation.
So I had to look that word up to make sure it was correct. Actually, admonish means a strong encouragement. It is a positive thing. So he is not impugning the Ephesians. He is admonishing them and pushing them to go on. You can see the progression of where he is leading with this.
The last thing he tells them is an admonition to go on with the Lord. We see this admonishment in Ephesians 6, beginning in verse 10. The first word stated in verse 10 is finally.
Paul has built up this letter to the Ephesians, and he is working up to this crescendo, or climax. He says, “Finally.” When you hear that word, finally, it ought to make the antennas go up, because there is probably something pretty significant coming. When he says, “Finally,” there is something that needs to be said—something very important.
I will read it:
Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in His mighty power.
Put on the full armor of God,
so that you can stand against the devil’s schemes.
That is the finally. That is the catalyst. That is the word to these Ephesians. It is his last word of encouragement, and it is a strong word because he knows the days in which they live. That, too, is for us. Same kind of days.
That is how they gain the victory. Actually, it is the Lord who is victorious in this, as we shall see. This serves as the basis of my getting started this morning and letting you know what is on my heart. It is indeed the full armor.
There is much to be said about that, but praise God that He has given us this, that we are equipped to move forth in the days in which we live. As I have said, we are in the battle, but we are not alone in this battle. Praise God that we are not alone.
We know the Christian life is not a bed of roses, but it is one of victory. That is quite a distinction. It almost sounds like a contradiction, does it not? Life can be difficult.
When I was thinking about this last night, when I got that email, Mac, about the McGuires, I thought, “Is this message really for them?” They are in a terrible situation, and we all know. But in their weakness, we can stand in the gap for them in fervent prayer.
We do not know the outcome of how it is all going to play out. Certainly, there are many days of healing to be done. But I can tell you this with full assurance: the victory in their lives will be the Lord’s. The Lord never loses.
So we can stand in the gap for this family and let the Lord be the Victor, no matter what the circumstances are, as hard as they are. The Christian life is not easy, but it is victorious. It cannot be anything else because the Lord has already won. We just need to keep our eye on that.
In order to gain Christ, it is true that we are going to have conflict in our lives. That is real life, is it not? There is going to be conflict. There is going to be adversity in order to gain victory. But we have to remember that.
Just as the saints in Ephesus were called, we too are called to be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Practically speaking, how are we to be strong in the Lord? What do we do? How do we do that?
Paul tells us that we are to put on the full armor of God. Now, that implies that it may not be on. It could be just lying to the side. So there is an action that we have to take. There is something we have to do.
When we are born again, when we are babes in Christ, we are not automatically suited up in full armor. I have a little granddaughter, and she is suited up in a diaper still at age three. I cannot see her crawling around or walking around in armor yet.
So, no, it is something deliberate that we do. We put it on. It does require action on our part, and we will look into that a little more.
But as you will see, it is a different kind of action. It is not something you might expect. We think of action as being busy, going to and fro, doing something—doing something for the Lord, right? Busy. Never stopping, never resting.
But this kind of action, you are going to see, is slightly different.
Let us have a look at Ephesians 6:10–18. This is the heart of the matter.
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 rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against 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 the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the 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.Finally, with this in mind, be alert. Be alert.
In this text we have just read, Paul lays out seven ways to take up our stand against the enemy. The full armor of God simply boils down to these aspects:
Notice that there are seven components that make up this armory. I believe that represents the perfection of God—the number seven. The reason I say so is because these elements of armor are complete. They are lacking nothing.
That is to say, the armor of God is indeed full. Nothing more needs to be done. Nothing more needs to be added. He has covered every base. Everything we need is in place. All we need to do is take it up. That is our job: to take it up by faith.
But it is up to us to stand. You are going to be hearing that word stand a lot this morning. Our primary job is standing and utilizing His impregnable position. We are alert, and we stand.
It is absolutely essential that we see this most important element of God’s armor. Remember, I said it is a different kind of action that we engage in. Taking on the full armor of God is all about standing.
It is hard to believe that standing is actually action. I am standing here now, and I am not moving much, but I am taking action, right? That is the action we take. We stand.
Paul uses the word stand four times in these verses we just read. So we need to pay special attention to that. It is the key to using the armor of God.
In verse 11, it says, “Take your stand.” The beginning of verse 13 says, “Stand your ground.” The end of verse 13 tells us, having done all—rest? No, no. Having done all, stand. We do not rest. Finally, in verse 14, we are told to “stand firm.”
Four times Paul says this, so you cannot miss it. That is the key to us utilizing armor: to take our place by faith, stand, and withstand the assaults of the enemy. Then the Lord will have His victory when we do that.
It is the Lord’s victory, and we are co-victorious. When He is victorious, we are in the train of His triumph—co-victorious with Him.
When I was considering how to present the full armor of God this morning, I wanted to take somewhat of a different approach. I believe we are all quite familiar with the passages describing armor and how Paul encouraged the Ephesians. We have heard that since childhood Bible stories.
We are like Christian in The Pilgrim’s Progress. You see the illustration of him ambling down the road with his suit of armor on, dragging the sword behind him. That is kind of the mental picture we get of Brother Christian.
So I am not going to approach this as though it were a how-to manual for using the elements of the armor. I think we all have a good practical understanding of that. There are many books available, even in our library, as well as the Christian Tape Ministry archives. You can go online and find ministries where brothers have shared on the full armor of God.
There is plenty of sound teaching out there available to us, and I would encourage you to visit those. I think that is good information for us and a good review.
Rather than give a how-to demonstration on how to use this armor, I want to give several examples of those who utilized the armor. We will look at how they used the armor to bring them through their circumstances, so that the Lord would gain the victory.
I think it might be more valuable to see how they did what they did in the circumstances they were in. We see how they were able to stand and withstand, and come through their situations victoriously. I think that would benefit us more.
Before I mention specific examples where people used God’s provision, I would like to make some general observations about armor.
First, armor is not like the gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians. We all have gifts, right? But not everyone has the same gift. One may possess the gift of charity; somebody else may have the gift of hospitality; another may have the gift of ministry; and so on and so forth.
Collectively and comprehensively, when we all utilize our gifts, it is a comprehensive function within the church. It is good that we all have different gifts, but when they are put together, then you have a full expression of the body of Christ.
But armor is not like that. Paul emphatically tells us in verse 11 to put on the armor—all of it. This is by faith, of course. One person does not just have the helmet of salvation while another takes up the shield of faith, while someone else utilizes the sword of the Spirit.
Individually, we do all of that. Corporately, when everybody does that, there is a corporate expression and there is great power. That is why I said we are in the army of the Lord. When all are wielding the full armor, there is strength. It is both personal in our lives and corporate within the church.
For armor to be effective, we have to remember that it has to be complete. Incomplete armor is tantamount to no armor. I am going to give a pretty graphic description of how that can be so later on.
Second, armor is complementary in nature. One part flows seamlessly into the other, leaving no part of the body exposed. For example, we wear the helmet of salvation to protect our minds, and we cover our bodies behind the breastplate of righteousness while applying the sword of the Spirit.
You see how complementary the pieces are. They work together; they flow together. That is how it operates. It is smooth, seamless, and well fitted—perfectly fitted to us. It is executed together in harmony. You have to have all of it, but it does flow together seamlessly.
Third, armor is spiritual in nature because we wrestle not against flesh and blood. We are in a spiritual battle, resisting the schemes of the enemy. I think we all understand that.
Fourth, armor is not just a last-ditch or emergency measure. How often have we tried to tackle issues that come up in our own strength, only to find that we fail? We have all done that. I have done that plenty of times.
Perhaps then we might try on the armor of God as a last-ditch, last-resort effort, once we get pinned down into a corner, not knowing how to escape, with the enemy bearing down upon us. “Help! Maybe the armor. I need the armor.” Too late then.
We have to put on that armor and be ready before—before.
I do like that book, The Pilgrim’s Progress. I know it is a child’s book, but there is a mighty good lesson in there. You might remember the story of when Christian got stuck in the Slough of Despond. He was stuck in the muck there, and he could not extract himself from it.
I have been stuck in mud before, and I am not kidding you. There have been times when you wonder if you are going to come out of it. I have had to literally crawl out in the mud just to get my feet out, and then lose my boot in the mud. It is no minor thing when you get stuck in the mud.
Unfortunately, Christian was stuck in the slough, and he had to be rescued. But he did have a way out if only he had taken up his stand—if he had only taken by faith, for example, the shield of faith. He had a way out if he had just used it, but he did not. That is a little lesson there about Christian.
Fifth, armor is not just a New Testament strategy tailored only to the Ephesian saints. This is Bobby’s opinion, but in my view, there were those throughout the Old Testament who made their stand using the armor of God.
Somebody might be thinking, “Well, Bobby, you have done it this time, buddy. You wandered off the reservation on this one. Show me where in the Old Testament it talks about the full armor of God.”
It may not state it in those very words, “the full armor of God,” but I can tell you there are many, many Old Testament saints—men of God—who utilized the full armor of God. What I mean by that is that they took their stand, withstood the assaults of the enemy, and broke through victoriously. The Lord brought them through in victory.
Though it is not spelled out in those exact words, the principle is at work all through the Bible. It is not just a New Testament phenomenon. Many saints of old fall under this category of using the full armor of God, because indeed they did so to break through.
The Old Testament saints had the oracles of God through the prophets, as well as direct revelation from God. They stood their ground to overcome the enemy and win victory in dramatic ways.
Sixth, to sum up and repeat: our job is to be alert, put on the armor, and stand. Those are the three things we are called to do.
Remember Roger’s ministry a while back: he said that it is God who fights for us. He is the great Warrior, Lion of the tribe of Judah. He first came as the Lamb, but He will soon return as the Lion. Our Lord is the Victor.
Those are some of my thoughts on armor this morning as we begin to explore some who took up and stood in the full armor of God.
The first example I would like to look at is an Old Testament example. It is a totally familiar story. I wanted to pick one that everybody knows well. But when we look at it, I want you to look at it from a different angle—not just the outcome of the story, but how it was accomplished.
I want you to see it from the aspect of using the full armor of God. Maybe, when we have heard this story in the past, we have not looked at it in that light. But that indeed is exactly what is going on here.
This is the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, found in Daniel 3. We all know the story. I wanted you to know the outcome, but I wanted you to see how we arrived at that outcome by using something we all know.
I want you to look at how they applied the armor of God to overcome the circumstance. They found themselves before King Nebuchadnezzar. I will not take time to read everything to set the stage for what appears, at first, to be a disastrous outcome.
But I will read the three men’s response to Nebuchadnezzar before they were cast into the fiery furnace. This is Daniel 3:16–18.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king,
“O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.
If we are thrown into the blazing furnace,
the God we serve is able to save us from it,
and He will rescue us from your hand, O king.But even if He does not, we want you to know, O king,
that we will not serve your gods
or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
That is their word back to Nebuchadnezzar. We know the outcome, but what I want to emphasize is their response to the king. They stood their ground in the face of death by faith, not willing to compromise their position.
They stood and withstood right there in front of Nebuchadnezzar, knowing they were going into the furnace. Right?
Now, verse 18 has caused some trouble and confusion for many of us because it appears that an element of doubt has crept in. It says, “But even if He does not.” It sounds as though they are giving themselves a little way out, just in case the Lord does not come through.
They say He is going to; they are confident of it. But it reads as though maybe He will not. Anyway, I do not agree with that—not at all.
I think these men are merely telling the king that they will not bow down to him no matter what. “We do not care what the Lord does about this. We are taking our position. We are holding our ground. We do not care if you throw us in the furnace. See you at the furnace, Nebuchadnezzar.”
I think that is their parting shot, really. That is applying the armor of God. We know the outcome. It was a glorious outcome. But I wanted you to see that example from the perspective of them taking their stand and letting the Lord gain the victory.
That is utilizing the armor of God. It is no more complicated than that. I think it is a good example that is very clear to us.
Would you believe that even the Lord Jesus Himself leaned upon the armor of God? You are thinking, “No. You are not telling me the Lord Jesus had to use armor. He is God. What does He need armor for?”
But when I thought about this, I thought that perhaps, in all of history, there has not been another man who lived that needed the armor of God more than the Lord Jesus. Was He not under attack constantly? Every day, He was under attack by the enemy. The enemy was trying to take Him down at every turn.
He did not want Him to go to the cross. He did not want Him to redeem us. Of course, He was under attack. There is