Transcript: Could you run through an explanation of the armor of God? Oh, there are probably a lot of different ways to explain the armor of God, but this is in Ephesians. We read about the armor of God. It’s towards the end of the book. He suggests that we need to put on the full armor of God, and Paul, under the inspiration of the Spirit, lists specific items of armor that would have been very familiar to the people of the day, right? They know the armor of God; they know the armor of people. Paul’s using that as an analogy. We’re a little disconnected from that because of fighting movies—we kind of understand armor, but we don’t really use it too much.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles or the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers. And here’s an interesting study—try to figure out what each of those are: the rulers, the authorities, and the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all, to stand firm.

Stand, therefore, and now he gives a list. Having fastened on the belt of truth, truth could refer to personal sincerity and integrity—that you are not an insincere person; you are genuine. The first thing you are as a Christian is you’re genuine. You put on that belt—I’m a genuine believer. So, this could be truthfulness that I maintain in my life, consistent living, genuine faith. It could also be putting on belief in the truth of Christ, that I’m choosing to trust what God has revealed, and I’m holding to my Christian worldview, my Christian faith strongly. I’m holding that truth, those beliefs—so that could be the belt of truth.

Having put on the breastplate of righteousness, I know there’s a discussion on this—the breastplate of righteousness. Some think, okay, well maybe it’s my behavior of righteousness, or maybe it is Christ’s righteousness, like I put on that breastplate of Jesus’s righteousness that’s on me, and it protects me to know that I’m not righteous; He is. I lean towards thinking the other thing—that putting on the breastplate of righteousness is my behavior as a Christian, that I walk righteously. I think righteousness guards you, living rightly. Now, I know you’re not perfect; I’m not perfect, but living holy lives as a Christian protects you in so many ways from spiritual attack.

How many of you have gone through seasons of doubt? And you know this—where the whole season of doubt was connected to the guilt of sin, where it’s like, I feel bad about the sin I’ve been committing, and now I’m doubting the truth of Christianity. But that breastplate of righteousness, that living a right life before the Lord, consistent with your faith, protects you. It protects you—it’s essential. In fact, I would say, if you are struggling with doubt and you’re also struggling with sin, deal with the sin—that might deal with the doubt too. It’s pretty crazy how consistent that is because oftentimes, doubt isn’t about facts; it’s about spiritual battles that you’re experiencing.

And as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace, just like the breastplate of righteousness protects you against onslaughts and attacks—it’s like your biggest protection item—so the shoes are about where you go. You travel, right? And shoes do a couple of things. One, they protect you from your feet getting damaged by the road. This could be like, as we’re living in the world, we’re making sure that our relationships are about sharing the gospel, right? We have the gospel of peace—we’re evangelizers, we’re all of us wanting people to know Christ. We’re not hiding our Christianity; we’re trying to tell other people about the Lord. We want them to get saved; we want them to put their faith in Jesus and be forgiven of their sins and enter into a relationship with God. So, that attitude—that my relationship with Christians is fellowship and edification, and my relationship with the world is evangelism—that attitude protects us as well.

This is something that keeps us from compromises in our lives where we spiritually fail and fall because we don’t have evangelism relationships. We’re like, well, I’m building friendship, building friendship; I’m just doing life with people. And there’s a place for that, I fully agree with you there, but how many of us have seen people say things like that because they just will never preach the gospel to anybody, and they feel very self-righteous. It’s funny how righteous people can feel about never sharing the gospel with anybody. I would say it’s part of the armor of God for a reason. Have the gospel in your witness of the world; it keeps your feet clean from the things of the world.

In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. The enemy, his flaming darts—you can connect this with First Peter, which says that we go through fiery trials in our lives, and that’s that the trial causes the testing of our faith, and the testing of our faith produces patience, and patience leads to all these things—patient longsuffering, good character is the final thing, and hope—sorry, character and hope. The point there, if you don’t know the passage, the point there is the idea that you go through trials, whether that’s persecution of the enemy or if it’s the kind of doubt and internal turmoil that I think can be caused by spiritual warfare.

The thing that helps you overcome this is your confident faith in Christ. This is not faith without evidence—no, no. Faith without evidence is not something we’re actually talking about here. It’s rather just, I’m going to trust you, Lord. I’ve got the reasons to believe, but I’m going to choose to trust you. So hold up that shield of faith, and as I am persecuted or I’m going through hard times, it’s going to be the thing that helps quench the fiery darts of the evil one.

And take the helmet of salvation—now, the reason why I think the breastplate of righteousness is our behavior is because the helmet of salvation is the thing where it protects your head. You know, you get a head blow, you’re dead. This is my salvation. I’m always reminding myself that my salvation comes from Christ. My salvation is to lift my head upward, to be thinking about eternity, to be delighting in the goodness of God, and remember that I am His and I am His forever. It’s that simple, like Christianity 101 stuff, that I never graduate beyond the simple gospel: Jesus saved me, my past has been wiped away and forgiven, my future is secure in Christ.

That righteousness keeps me strong, keeps me healthy—my lived-out holiness in this world, but it’s His gift of salvation that is the foundation of all of it. So take that helmet of salvation and remind yourself of that. And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God—it’s the one offensive tool in the armor of God, so you’re fully buckled up and ready to go, and you have one weapon—it’s the sword of the Spirit. Here’s my sword of Spirit, and you’ve got the word of God. To them, the word of God could be referring to simply the gospel itself. It could be a reference to Scripture, to all of Scripture—that’s quite possible as well. I think it would be inclusive of all of those things. So it’s the message of the Gospel, but it’s also just all of Scripture. The word of God is the thing that’s going to give me the ability to have discernment, the ability to have promises that I can claim, truths that I can hold on to, direction for my life, correction, and rebuke—all of that stuff is going to be there.

I need the word of God. And then finally, he says, praying at all times in the Spirit—he doesn’t have an item of the armor to talk about that, but he mentions it—praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. So, there’s the armor—got a quick rundown through the armor of God.

See original video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvcwe-wqN6M