In Christ 20: Put on the Full Armor of God, Part II March 6, 2016 Ephesians 6:13-17 Some of you have probably heard about this news in the Christian community. The news is Larycia Hawkins 1, a political science professor at Wheaton College, was fired because she posted on her Facebook page that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. Dr. Hawkins was the only tenured African American woman professor at Wheaton College. Though she is a devoted Christian, she chose to wear a hijab (headscarf) to support her Muslim neighbors. She did it with good intentions to show them the love of God. This has been big news in the last month. So who do you think is right? Are Christians and Muslims worshiping the same God? As we are talking about evil spirits, do you think Muslims are evil? Shall we fight against them? Or shall we ban Muslims from coming to our country? I am not going to answer these questions because you don t come to church to hear my opinions. But we are here at church to hear from God. Spiritual warfare is a very difficult subject because evil spirits are invisible. It is very sensitive because no one wants to hear he/she is evil. But we understand that we are all involved in spiritual warfare. So we seek the wisdom from the Holy Spirit. We are seeking the answers from the Word. [Read Ephesians 6:13-17] Last week we focused on the idea that we Christians are waging a war against evil spirits. We learned where evil originally came and who Satan is. As Paul said, we are not waging a war against people. Then who are our enemies? As Christians, we face three enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil (v.12; Eph. 2:1-3). By the world I mean the corrupt system around us. It has authorities and powers, and Satan is the ruler of that world. The world is against the kingdom of God and His righteousness. It is so corrupt and broken that we, living in that system, can be hurt. We can be unjustly abused. The flesh is our old sinful nature that we inherited from Adam, a nature that is opposed to God and can do nothing to please Him (Romans 8:8). We need to be aware of our sinful nature as sin naturally grows just like weeds in the grass. Before the weeds of our sin get too thick, we need to crucify our sins on the cross every day. The last enemy is Satan and his host. Satan is a king of his kingdom, a king of evil angels who fell after him and those who decided to follow him. He has his strategies to deceive Christians. Satan and demons are the ones who manipulate most of our troubles. As we look at more details of spiritual warfare, we will see that everywhere in our lives we are waging a war no one is exempt. Every believer will have to fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil. Knowing the seriousness of spiritual war, Paul commands us twice, 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 (v.13). In order to stand, we need to put on the full armor of God. Paul then explains what the armor of God is. The armor of God consists of the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the feet of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. This armor 1 http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2016/february/wheaton-college-larycia-hawkins-same-godreinstatedochawk.html 1
is not man-made, but it is the God-made weapon for us to win over our spiritual war. We are in the battle and we have the right tool. We just need to know how to use it. Today, we will look at two pieces of the armor of God. The first piece of the armor is the belt of truth, as Paul says, Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist (v.14a). Belts are more decorative this day. They hold up pants but we don t really need them unless you have no (hip) muscle. But in Paul s day, belts were necessary. Soldiers wore tunics (a pic of a tunic), which were large square pieces of material that had holes for the head and arms. The tunics hung low and loose. Normally they didn t need to tie them, but if a soldier wanted to be ready to fight, he would have to tie it with a belt. The belt would give the soldier the mobility and flexibility he needed for a battle. It was also common for a Roman soldier to wear a strap [a pic of a armor], which was connected from the front of the belt, going over the shoulder and to the belt in the back. He would attach his sword to the strap. We may say a belt is not truly armor but it holds the rest of the armor in place. When a soldier put on his belt, attached the strap, and hooked on his sword, he was ready to fight. Likewise, the belt of truth has to come first for our spiritual battle. Here, the belt of truth does not refer to the Scripture since the sword in verse 17 does. Rather, it refers to believers integrity and faithfulness. It is our attitude about how we hold the truth of God. Jesus declared, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6). Jesus is the only truth to know the Father. Jesus is the Word who became flesh and made his dwelling among us. So the belt of truth is our faith in Jesus Christ. In this generation, people are so confused. There seems to be no ultimate truth, and we often feel we are lost without truth. But our attitude should hold the truth of God. The world teaches us there are many ways to heaven, but truth teaches us Jesus is the only way to heaven. The world teaches us to seek our own pleasure because life is short, but truth teaches us to seek first God s kingdom and righteousness. The world teaches us to love ourselves, but truth teaches us to love the LORD your God and love your neighbors. The world teaches us there can be different kinds of marriage, but truth teaches us a man and a woman shall marry in God (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:4-6). The world teaches us money or success is the most important thing(s) that will make us happy, but truth teaches us that true joy comes from the presence of God (Ps. 16:11). The world teaches us that the problem(s) of this world is someone or something else, but truth teaches us the problem of this world is myself/ourselves my/our own sin. The world teaches us we can find solutions in politics or economics, but truth teaches that Jesus Christ is the solution for this country. Amen? Thinking back to the statement of Dr. Hawkins, the world teaches us that all religions are basically the same; particularly Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are the same since they believe the same God. Yes, Jews, Muslims, and Christians believe in one God, but they are different because of Jesus Christ. When we Christians call our God, we are calling the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. When Muslims call Allah, they call God who was revealed in Muhammad. If Jews call Yahweh without believing in Jesus, the Messiah, 2
they are not believing the same God. The truth is that the God we believe is the Trinity the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We don t believe, call, or think just to one part of the Trinity. One of the biggest deceptions of Satan is to deceive us concerning Jesus Christ: to deny that He is the Son of God. Satan knows that without Jesus, who is Truth, we have no true defense against Satan in our life. When we stand on our own account, Satan will eventually ensnare us with his tricks. In this broken world, Satan will tempt us in our sinful nature. Without the belt of truth, we can t use a sword and a shield which are given to us. We are no match for Satan without the truth of Jesus in us. That is why we must study the Word of God. That is why we must hold the truth of Jesus so that we can have every piece of the armor of God. Have you put on the belt of truth? How can we buckle or fasten the belt on our waist? Let me give you a couple of hints. 1 Peter 1:13 says, Prepare your minds for action in the NIV, but in Greek it literally means, Bind the loins of your mind. Verse 14 in our text literally means Bind or encircle your loins in truth. The difference between verse 14 and 1 Peter 1:13 is truth and mind. The second hint is from John 8:44. Jesus said to the Jews, You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). Satan has no truth in him, but he has power and he is very sneaky. When he lies to us and when we listen to Satan, his words come to our minds and his lies look like truth, which are not true at all. Based on the two Scriptures among many, I can say in one word that to fasten the belt of truth is to think think in your mind. What do we need to think? Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things (Philippians 4:8). This is how we can put on the belt of truth. As we have put on the belt of truth, we are ready to put on the next piece of armor: that is the breastplate. The Roman soldier normally wore a bronze plate lined with leather on his torso. [a pic of the armor] It extended from the neck down to the navel. It was to protect the heart from sword thrusts, arrows, and spears. We can still survive without a leg or an arm. We can live without eyes or ears. But without a heart, we can t survive for a second. Obviously, the breastplate was an essential piece of the soldier s combat armor. It is the same again in our spiritual war. As we become truthful by holding the truth of Jesus Christ, now we need to protect our heart of faith; that is, righteousness. As much as a heart is important for our body, keeping righteousness is the key in our spiritual war. Just think about what bothers you most in your Christian life. Or let s ask it this way, What areas does Satan attack most? I can say two areas: the mind and the emotions. When Satan attacks our heat, he is attacking our minds and emotions. Satan wants to snatch the Word of God from us and fill our mind with lies and false doctrines. He wants us to think sin is not so bad. He wants us to become very tolerant of sin and even enjoy the thrills of sin. Satan wants to confuse our emotions by corrupting 3
our desires to live a righteous life. He wants to destroy our conscience so it will no longer warn us. We can easily fall to Satan s accusations, not because we don t have enough knowledge or experiences, but because we don t keep the righteousness to protect our minds and emotions. So what shall we do when Satan attacks our minds and emotions? If you see one of your friends struggling in his/her emotions, shall we pray against evil spirits? Satan, I bind you in the name of Jesus. I command you leave from his/her mind and emotions! What do you think? Is rebuking and evicting Satan the right approach? Maybe so or maybe not. As we study more, we will be able to answer this kind of question. But for now we need to know about righteousness. Righteousness is not something we can earn by doing good or helping other people. Righteousness is not a by-product of our success. We can t build our own righteousness. It doesn t come down from our parents or tradition, either, as the Bible says there is no one righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10). Rather, righteousness comes from God through our faith, as Paul confesses, I may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith (Philippians 3:9). When we believe in Jesus through faith, the righteousness of God is imputed (credited) to us. It means God proclaims that you are Not Guilty! You are forgiven! You are free from your sins! Hallelujah! We are justified at the moment we are saved. However, Satan is not finished yet. Last week I invited a man to come and worship God with us. He said he wanted to, but not this time. It was because he said he didn t have clean clothes. That s not what the Bible teaches us, is it? That is actually what Satan is doing. Satan is still whispering in our ears that we are not good enough; we have sinned too much to be forgiven; we are handicapped; we are ugly and poor. If we listen to him even after we are called righteous, we will repeat after Satan, Right, I am not good enough to worship God. I am poor. I am ugly. No one cares for me. No one loves me. Then we may choose to abuse our body and soul. This can happen even to those who are saved by the grace of God. So what shall we do? We need to battle Satan s accusations toward our minds and emotions. I will call it practical righteousness (or sanctification), which means living a holy life. It means imitating Jesus in his holiness. Imputed righteousness guarantees the ultimate victory over Satan, and practical righteousness will help us to win the daily battle against the devil. With the breastplate of righteousness, we can reject Satan s accusations. Satan may still try to accuse us, but with the breastplate of righteousness, we will hear what God says to us. Open your ears and hear what he is saying to you, You are beautiful. You are a masterpiece. I love you so much that I let my Son die for you. You are My child. And I will be with you forever wherever you are. [Praise the Lord!] Don t ever forget that no one and nothing can separate you from the love of God. We have learned about two pieces of the armor today: the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness. By putting on the belt of truth, by believing in Jesus Christ who is truth, we will have freedom from the world s/the devil s lies in our daily life. With the breastplate of righteousness, we will not be confused in our minds. We will have peace in 4
our minds and emotions. Freedom and peace that is a good start, isn t it? But there will be more in our spiritual battle. We will hear more about the armor of God. For now, don t forget that the truth in Jesus will set you free from sin and guilt and the righteousness of God will give you victory in Jesus every day in your life. So go in peace! Amen. 5