Put on These - Part 1

Well, good evening everybody. We will continue our study on the armor of God. And by continue, what I mean is we will begin our study on the armor of God since the introduction is now finished. So if you turn to Ephesians chapter 6, we will read the passage. And then I'll pray and then we can look at the armor. Ephesians 6 verses 13 to 17.

Therefore take up the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes You will be able to stand your ground, and having done everything to stand. Stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness arrayed, and with your feet fitted with the readiness of 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 and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we pray that you would bless the reading of your word and the study of your word tonight. Help me as I teach to say things that are helpful and good and truthful. And I pray for the hearts of those listening that you would send your Holy Spirit to work in their hearts to help them to be changed by the power of your word.

Amen. The armor of God. If you listen to me read from my version, the Berean Standard Bible, you probably noticed that this armor doesn't have a lot of differences in the versions. It's still truth, righteousness, gospel of peace, faith, salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. So there's not a big variability there because these words are very clear. So quickly what I want to address before we get into looking at the armor in detail, looking at these pieces in detail of armor, I want to point out that the idea of this passage is that you put on the full armor of God.

It's not the pieces that matter. That is to say that the idea is not for you to really think about a shield apart from a helmet, or to be thinking about what a breastplate does, or what shoes do. Although there's some nice analogies you can pull from the different pieces of armor, the purpose of the passage is for you to understand that you need the whole armor.

And it's not that you would focus on any one or the other from the armor standpoint, but it's the virtues that are extolled that we are to put on. And so whereas I could potentially forget a helmet, and there may be some kind of analogy you could make to not having your helmet on and going into battle, I think that's insignificant. The point is, is all of the virtues that you are to put on are the virtues that God wants you to think about.

So put these on, think about the verse, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh. So what God is telling us is that we're going to put off some things. In the Bible, we're taught to put off and to put on. And the way we avoid sin is basically always to put on something that's righteous. And so I personally will, we will teach through what these virtues are, but I don't think that they're meant to be really distinguished and, for example, put in separate buckets.

As you're practicing truth, you're also going to be thinking about the gospel. So they're not these separate entities. Let me read a couple of verses. I don't want to review all these. I just want to tell you what they say. They're on your sheet.

And these verses are, I'm sharing them with you to show you that I don't think that it's necessary to concern yourself with the details of which piece of armor is which. And let me, I'll tell you why. Psalm 7, 10, my shield is with God who saves the upright in heart. Reference to a shield. Isaiah 11.5 Righteousness will be the belt around his hips, and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

So there you have a belt that's righteousness rather than a belt of truth. In 1 Thessalonians 5.8, a New Testament passage, Paul writes, But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, rather than a breastplate of righteousness. And the helmet of our hope of salvation. And there's a couple other verses here, one of them referring to God as a shield.

My point being that if you tie yourself to thinking of the breastplate being righteousness, you're missing the point. The point isn't whether it's a breastplate, the point is you need to put on righteousness. Another interesting note, I don't want to spend time on it. I want to get into the armor but another interesting note is that in Isaiah 59 17 I always find it remarkable when the New Testament quotes the old In Isaiah 59, 17, referencing God coming to destroy the enemies of his people, it says, He put on righteousness like a breastplate and the helmet of salvation on his head.

He put on garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in a cloak of zeal. When Paul tells you to put on the full armor of God, I think sometimes we think of it as these things that God gives us that we can then wear, I guess. Whereas, it's literally referencing God's armor that he wears. There's a sense that we're just dressing like God. We're doing the things that God does.

And that's what children do. They imitate their father. So turn to John 14, verse 6. I want to dig into the actual virtues that are now extolled. If you were hoping that I would explain how a belt functioned on a Roman centurion's uniform, you came to the wrong class. I've heard sermons that go into great detail, again, about the physical elements of the armor, and I think there's some analogies there that can be helpful, but that is not my focus.

My focus is to talk about what we are to put on as we're putting off, and then fighting with the schemes of Satan. Would somebody like to read John 14, 6? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you do know him, and I see him.

So Jesus announces himself to be the truth. Though it's interesting, when he stood before Pontius Pilate, does anyone remember what Pilate said to Jesus? One of the short little questions he asked him, three words. He asked him if he was God. He asked him if he was God, but Jesus said, you know, he speaks from the truth. And you remember Pilate says, what is truth?

Remember that? It's in John 19. Truth was standing right in front of Pilate and he didn't see it. And so we need to recognize that Jesus is the truth. So when you're told, put on the belt of truth, one of those things is to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you put on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will make no provision for the flesh.

Moving right along to John 17, 3. We could spend, by the way, an entire hour just talking about truth. And then we could leave all thinking, wow, there's a lot more we could say about truth. We can also move moderately quickly and what we'll find is that a lot of the verses that I've put on your sheet that are meant for gospel or righteousness or for the sword of the spirit, they're going to overlap because all these virtues overlap.

And these virtues are effectively demonstrations of God's person or his works. And so the verses in the Bible that we can use to understand one will help us with the other one. So if you think I'm moving quickly, part of it's because there's a lot that I want to get through and there's only one and a half more nights to do it. But I think that there will be a lot of overlap.

John 17, 3. Larry, do you want to read that one? This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ is the one who has sent him. So knowing Jesus is your first defense against Satan. And you have to know him. He's not just somebody that you can have heard about.

He's not somebody that you can have read a story and maybe even believe the story about him. Do you know who else believes that Jesus died and rose from the grave? Who? Demons do. Your very enemies believe that he did all the things he did. They witnessed it.

Just believing things about Jesus is not the same as knowing Him. Knowing Him is a word implying intimacy and a relationship that is close and loving. And so you must know Jesus, you must know the truth in that sense. If you turn to John 17, 17, or just look down on your page, is there somebody that would like to read John 17, 17? Faith and holy right and truth, teach them your word which is truth.

Yes, and in some versions, sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth, is what Jesus is praying to the Father on behalf of his people. So not only is Jesus the truth, but God's word is the truth. And so that is why it's a shield to those who take refuge in him. That's Proverbs 30, verse 5. That's on your sheet up above.

1 Timothy 1 Timothy 2 Timothy 3 Timothy 4 Timothy 5 Timothy 6 A little bit later we going to talk about the same thing because understanding God word is having the sword but it also the belt of truth because God word is truth Knowing Jesus is truth, but the gospel of salvation, the helmet, or the gospel of your shoes, the shoes that are shod with the gospel of peace and the helmet of salvation, that's referencing Jesus. So you see how they overlap? And so God has given us all these different ways that we can look at things so that we can be aware of the devil's schemes.

Because remember I told you, and you saw it in the text yesterday, that he will disguise himself as an angel of light. The devil will come and he will very rarely 100% contradict what God has taught. The devil, more commonly, will take 90-95% of what God has said and he will bring it with just a little bit of deception. Just enough to pervert the truth from its purity, but to keep it close enough that you might eat it.

Nobody here is going to eat a pile of poison, are you? If I brought you a plate and said, here's poison, you wouldn't eat it. But if I hid it in a pan of brownies, I could poison everybody in this room. Well, except if you don't eat brownies, but you get the point of the analogy right. Yeah, we don't need to go into all the exceptions. All right.

Recognize truth from falsehood. Be aware of Satan's deceptions. Know what is good and true. Philippians 4.8, meditate on things that are good, pure, honorable, just, lovely, commendable, anything that's excellent. If there's any truth, think about these things and you will be prepared for the wiles of the devil's falsehood. I've heard it said that you can't possibly learn every false thing that's taught out there.

You might become an expert in Islam or Mormonism or something. You could pick one or two other religions and try to really study them and get good at them. And that may be necessary in your context, right? We have a friend of this church who is an expert in Islam, right? One of the missionaries we support. And that's great because he encounters a lot of Muslims.

It really helps him talk to them. You can't possibly learn every falsehood that's out there so that you know. But if you study the truth and you become more and more acquainted with the truth through knowledge of Jesus Christ and experiential relationship with him, when falsehoods come along, they'll be easier to detect. When a false Jesus is being presented to you, the better you know the real one, the better you'll recognize the false one.

So that's how you put on truth. Study God's word and continue to grow in your knowledge of Christ. Any thoughts or comments on truth? Any way you've seen clinging to truth in your life has helped you to defeat schemes of Satan? Thank you. So, if you've experienced this community and are comfortable with it, you're going to recognize opposing communities and not be comfortable with it.

So, anything you do a lot of, you get comfortable, you get good at. Anything new is going to be weird. And if you're comfortable here, if you're somewhere else and you experience something, it should feel weird. It's not this beauty, right? That's a really good example. And it leads into the breastplate of righteousness, which part of how we're going to discuss the breastplate of righteousness is that our habits that we form are going to help us in this battle against the wiles of Satan.

So as you practice righteousness, you will actually have more power or less inclination to sin. You'll have more power over sin. So under the breastplate of righteousness heading, I have a question for you. Is this referring to imputed righteousness or is it our practical righteousness? Does anyone have any thoughts? I'm not asking as some kind of gotcha.

It's more of a, like, what do you think? Or maybe both answers have validity. When Paul says, put on the breastplate of righteousness, how do you think that might play out? I agree with you. I don't think there's a wrong answer. I can't do it myself.

I put that on to do what we could be righteous. So God is the one who is going to do the righteousness, but it's still my responsibility to act upon that. And so I took that to the child of God. God is a future to me, but now I have to take it up, because I have a responsibility to this, to be able to stand in this. But I have to part with me or defeat the wild Satan But because he imputed righteousness in that I can overcome Good answer And I have no gotchas in here I not here to embarrass somebody So go ahead and, you know, any more thoughts on it?

So, you know, as we think about this, this armor is to help us defend ourselves against Satan, right? So, the imputed righteousness is going to be there whether we defend ourselves or whether we fall victim. That's always going to be there. That's always going to protect us. The practical righteousness that you're talking about, I feel like it's more of the armor, right?

It's something we're doing to actively combat Satan. So, I mean, again, I agree with Larry and Eve that they both apply. If we're talking about in terms of the armor of God, I see that this is more of the practical side. Because the imputed is always going to be there. Yeah, good answers. And just think, I actually think it's, I think it's referring to practical righteousness, but I think imputed righteousness has application.

In case somebody wasn't clear on this, imputed righteousness is the righteousness that is credited to believers when they trust Christ. So imputed righteousness means you don't have a righteousness of your own, but God sees you on the basis of an alien righteousness. And righteousness outside of your person is credited to you, and you're treated as if you had the righteousness of Jesus.

That's what imputed righteousness means. Practical righteousness, the word I'm using here, practical, is the righteousness that you actually engage in practice. So when I hold the door for somebody and I do a kind deed, that was practical righteousness. That really does exist and I'm commanded to practice it. And if I don't, you'll notice. If I shut the door on you, you'll notice when I don't practice righteousness.

Whereas like Larry pointed out, if you're a Christian and God has credited your account with the righteousness of his son, so you have imputed righteousness, that will never be taken away. You can't make it bigger or smaller, so it's always with you. And I think if we turn to Romans 6.19, the challenge I will share with you, the challenge teaching these things is that any of these verses could be a sermon.

And so I'm trying to condense the thoughts from them quickly, And then I'm trying to do that in a way that doesn't make you think I'm just flying through things without any thought on it. So meditate on these yourself. One of the reasons you have a worksheet is so you can take notes, you can read the scriptures yourself. And like I said the other day, if you have a problem with something, feel free to speak up or talk to me after.

In Romans 6.19, Paul says, I'm speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. And then he gets to the meat of what I want you to understand. He says, just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. So Paul compares the life of the non-Christian as somebody submitting themselves as a slave to unrighteousness, which leads to more unrighteousness.

Paul compares that on the whole opposite spectrum of things now to a person who's a Christian practicing righteousness. So trying to do the things that you know God has commanded and it will lead to ever increasing righteousness or holiness. And so I think that's what Paul is speaking of when he says to put on the breastplate of righteousness. The more righteousness you try to practice, the more when an unrighteous temptation comes before you, it'll simply be less interesting.

It'll be less habitual. Some of you would never go to sleep at night without brushing your teeth. Lindsay wouldn't, would you? See, I knew I had one. If your habit, I hope you all do that. That's great.

But why? It's a habit. For a lot of you it's a habit and you wouldn't miss it because it's such a habit that even the night that you forgot, the night that it didn't come to mind, the night other things came up, that habit is going to keep you doing that thing that you think is the right thing. How much more important is it to practice righteousness so that we have habits?

Ephesians 4.27, the entire chapter is about bearing fruit and keeping with repentance. And in Ephesians 4.27 is where it says, don't give the devil a foothold. So part of how you don't give the devil a foothold is by practicing the righteousness that's spoken of preceding Ephesians 4.27, which includes the way you speak. I believe it includes working instead of stealing.

In 1 Corinthians 7, 1 through 5, an interesting passage to a lot of people. It says, now for the matters you wrote about. He says it's good to abstain from sexual relations, but because there's so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. So Paul's commanding the people receiving the letter that they're not to withhold marital relations with their spouse.

And he says the husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife and likewise the wife to her husband. He says they each have authority over each other's body. But what's important is then verse 5. Don't deprive one another except by mutual consent and for a time or for a specified time. So you may devote yourselves to prayer. He says then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you through your lack of self-control.

It's practicing righteousness. In your marriage, supplying your spouse the things that they need, that's part of how you continue to practice righteousness and not give Satan a foothold so that he will not tempt you. 2 Corinthians 2, 9-11, another reference to Satan. We could look at a lot of passages in the Bible that talk about being righteous. I selected a handful that also overlap with just talking about Satan, just to drive the point home of how the righteousness helps us.

Somebody want to read that passage? 2 Corinthians 2, 9-11. Go ahead, Larry, real loud. For this is why I wrote, that I might test you, and know whether you are obedient in everything. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan, who we are not bigger than his designs.

So in context, Paul's telling the church, if you're refusing to forgive somebody, Even someone who sinned really bad, if you're refusing to forgive a repentant brother or sister in that church, Satan is outwitting you. But Paul knows his schemes, and he actually writes them. He says to test if they'll be obedient in everything. So you're going to go to heaven one day based on only whether Jesus Christ died and rose for your sins.

But while you're walking this earth, you are commanded to live out that faith in Christ, which manifests itself in righteousness, bearing fruit in keeping with repentance from your former life. Revelation 19.8, she was given clothing of fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen she wears is the righteous acts of the saints. When you, the bride of Christ is adorned by the righteous works that the bride of Christ performs, which the bride of Christ is the church.

That is the works that we're doing that God foreordained that we should walk in them because of the power and the love of Christ in us. So Christ is always the starting point. He's the author and perfecter. He's the motivation. It's his righteousness that had to be there before we could have any. But it is a reality that we are commanded to be righteous and it should be joyful to us.

So in conclusion, we're saved by grace unto righteousness. Some people separate those things too much. It's good to separate them so we know the theological definitions of how to get saved, how to trust that you're going to heaven for the right reason. But some people separate them so much it's as if living out a righteous life is irrelevant. We plant a tree so that it will produce fruit.

Don't confuse the root with the fruit, but don't pretend like the fruit doesn't matter. Imputed righteousness reminds us that we will persevere to the end. So one of the ways imputed righteousness, I believe, putting that on, having that on your mind, one of the ways that helps you defeat the devil is it reminds us that we're going to persevere to the end, And even if the devil outwits you if anyone in this room has ever sinned after becoming a Christian one of your comforts is that that sin was as forgiven as all the other ones God already knew about it And so even if the devil can get to you one day you don have to fear punishment because there no fear in love Practical righteousness leads to habits that will make us less inclined to give into or even enter into temptation.

Jesus warned the apostles, watch and pray that ye not enter into temptation. And then like an hour later, he's like, could you not even watch and pray one hour? And we look at the apostles and we kind of chuckle at them and laugh at them. And yet every single one of us would have failed as quickly as they did. So I'm thankful that all my sins aren't written in an eternal book, you know, like David's and Peter's and some of these guys that that had to do that.

And so we're thankful for the examples we're given. So are there any thoughts on how God has granted you righteousness in your Christian walk? And maybe particularly how that has helped you in a particular temptation you had in life? Or overcoming a sin that once ensnared you? Yes, that's right around Ephesians 4.27. Amen.

Yeah, good analogy. You got to have an invitation to him. Yep. So it's saying to take care of others. Yeah, the best time to repent of sin is right when you did it, and the second best time is now. But speaking of thorns in your foot, the gospel of peace shoes will protect you from that, right?

So now we got a practical application for you. For those of you that wanted a physical reason to put on some shoes, here you go. Your feet are shod with the readiness given by the gospel of peace. There's a famous sermon called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. It's considered the greatest sermon ever preached by the father of American Christianity, basically, Jonathan Edwards.

And he used the passage in Deuteronomy 32, I think 35, In due time their feet will slip. He's talking about Israel's enemies, who he's actually granting Israel's enemies temporary victory over Israel to punish them. And he says, In due time their feet will slip. And I thought that the readiness given by the gospel of peace is part of our protection from slipping.

And so there's your analogy with the shoes. In Psalm 17 some of these I just want to read to you Feel free to look them up or if you have a thought on it raise your hand I be happy to hear your comment But Psalm 17 5 My steps have held to your paths my feet have not slipped God talks a lot about our walk. He talks a lot about us standing. This is how God describes our life.

And so if you believe the gospel, he says, My steps have held to your paths. My feet have not slipped. The gospel gives you that stability you need. It reminds you of the two things we just talked about. The imputed righteousness is what you're standing upon, but the practical righteousness is what you're commanded to walk in. Psalm 66, 9, he preserves our lives and keeps our feet from slipping.

Psalm 73, 2, but as for me, my feet had almost stumbled. My steps had nearly slipped. This is Asaph writing about how he was brought back to a right relationship with the Lord after he had started to think wrongly about the Lord's goodness to his enemies, frankly. And the gospel is what brings us back into right standing so that we won't slip. So whereas none of us could stand on our own, Adam, the perfect man, couldn't make it without sinning.

And I have a theory that it was the seventh day of creation when he actually sinned. So the day God was actually trying to rest, metaphorically speaking, I think that's when Adam brought the fall upon us. But the point being that even a perfect man couldn't stay away from sin. But we have Jesus, the divine man, a different kind of perfection, who did everything necessary for us to not only be forgiven by God for our iniquities, but to be treated as if we're righteous and to have the actual power to live the righteous life that God commands of us.

In Deuteronomy 32, 35, we talked about their feet will slip. In Proverbs 24, 16, that's the verse that says, Though a righteous man falls seven times, yet he'll get back up again. We live in the reality of the time period where you are a Christian who has a new spirit and a new heart. You love the Lord and you love righteousness, but you live in a body that is still under this curse.

You live in a flesh that still pulls you towards that which you do not want to do. And so though you will fall, God promises that you will get up. And that is what the gospel promises you, not only the forgiveness of sins, but the freedom from the power of sin in your life. And the gospel also promises one day the freedom from the presence of sin in your life.

So right now we're freed from the power of it as a master. One day you'll get a new body. And a new body sounds exciting because guess what? Now your knee won't hurt. You probably won't wear glasses. We'll either all have hair or we all won't, whichever is the better one.

You know, the bald guys always think they're closer to glory is what they say. But you know what's more exciting is that one day you will be able to worship God And you will not have a molecule in your body that pulls you away from that. You won't have a part of you that treasures any iniquity in your heart. You won have an inclination to violate God law or to not love your neighbor That is the real beauty and promise that we have in the gospel that one day that will be our experience And we experience it bodily So the gospel reminds us, sorry, I don't have a lot of time, but I will let you do a comment if you want.

But let me read my concluding remark on the gospel. The gospel reminds us that the devil's schemes, as Romans 8.28 teaches us, that's the verse that says, All things work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose. The devil's schemes are actually part of all the things that work together for good for you. Do you understand that?

It reminds us of that and it teaches us that the devil can never ultimately succeed. Although he could torment you, he could even tempt you to the point that you sin. Again, his schemes will not be victorious because Jesus has already crushed him by the gospel. He has defeated him. So the devil is not a lord to be feared, but he's a vile enemy. With respect to his power to cause damage and devastation, we should be diligent to be vigilant about his schemes.

But with respect to his power to thwart God or his promises, we may laugh at the devil's impudence and his pride. So does anybody have any concluding thoughts on the gospel and how it's changed you or given you hope in times of temptation, battling Satan? Well, I hope that the answer to my question is yes. Everyone has thoughts about that, and you just weren't wanting to share them out loud right now for some reason.

So it would be my encouragement, though, that when I ask these questions, whether you want to participate out loud, I know some people that's not their personality or disposition. I hope you're thinking about these things. That's the whole point of a class. That's the whole point of an adult VBS, So that we will be able to be, as Tim likes to put it, transformed by this truth.

And that's what we want. We want to leave here tonight stronger to walk in righteousness that God has commanded of us. And more trusting in his promise that he's the provider of that necessary righteousness and power. So let me pray. Father, thank you that you have given us so abundantly in your word. Lord, that even as I went through a few verses extolling each virtue in the armor of God, I'm sure hundreds of verses came to the minds of the saints in this room, and I'm thankful that you use your Holy Spirit to teach us individually, that you have personal, intimate relationships with every Christian, And that we all have access by that one spirit through the one man, the only mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ.

So I pray that we would avail ourselves of this power, that we would avail ourselves of this truth, and that you would help us to walk in newness of life, be with the kids the rest of the night, help them to have a good spirit, keep them from fighting and all the little things that can come up. We pray that you would help us to be able to teach them well, and that the adults that are modeling Christian behavior would do so in a way that glorifies you, Father, and your Son, Jesus. And we can only do this by the power of your Holy Spirit that indwells our hearts, so thank you for that gift.

And it's in Christ's name I pray. Amen.