Sermon for
Trinity 21, October 27, 2019
As
ridiculous as this looks, history is littered with the dead bodies of warriors
that went into battle against armies that had much superior weaponry. My little toys, here, wouldn’t defend me, for
even a second, from a real attack by a committed foe. I am defenseless and would soon be dead. Yet, how many times do we enter this world’s
spiritual battles without being fully equipped?
And, how many people do we know wandering in this world of spiritual
warfare, armed with no better protection than I am carrying here, while under
constant assault by forces that intend to destroy their souls for eternity? So, recognizing the dangers around us, let’s listen
when the Holy Spirit teaches us to Put
on the full armor of God.
Grace to you and peace from God
the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Ephesians 6:10-17 10Finally, be
strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
11Put on the full armor of God, so that you can stand against
the schemes of the Devil. 12For
our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against
the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13For this
reason, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to take a stand
on the evil day and, after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand,
then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of
righteousness fastened in place, 15and with the readiness that comes
from the gospel of peace tied to your feet like sandals. 16At all times hold up the shield
of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of
the Evil One. 17Also take the
helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (EHV)
Dear fellow soldiers in the battle
for life, the One true God rescued us from sin and death, and He doesn’t want
our rescue to go for naught. Furthermore,
God is keeping you and me in this foreign land, for a time, for His good
purpose of bringing salvation to more and more people.
In the letter to the Ephesians, we
receive excellent instruction on how we should live our lives in this
spiritually war-ravaged-world, but the Lord knew that left on our own, we would
be slaughtered like helpless sheep, so Paul begins the conclusion of his letter
by instructing, “Finally, be strong in the Lord
and in his mighty power.”
By our own strength, we are as helpless against the powers of evil as
lambs before wolves. So, for the
spiritual battle going on in this world, we need to be equipped by the only
true source of power and might, which is the Lord God Almighty. Because the Holy Spirit knows the danger that
surrounds us, He urges us through St. Paul to Put on the full armor of God.
Can you imagine a Roman soldier
going out to battle with only part of his equipment? Perhaps with only his shield but no helmet or
sword, or perhaps with his helmet but no shield, or with a sword but no
protective armor at all? The idea is
ludicrous! Any soldier worth his salt
will take the best available armament to protect himself from the thrusts and
blows that will come from his enemy, and he will take the best available
offensive weapons so he can drive away the savage attacker. Thus, Paul tells us, “Put
on the full armor of God, so that you can stand against the schemes of the
Devil.”
Make no mistake; we face an
incredibly cunning and evil foe. The
devil knows our weaknesses. He knows and
misuses the Scriptures, and he will use any deceit, any lie, any advantage, and
every vulnerable spot he can find to cause our destruction. He will come at the most unexpected times,
and least expected places, to try to catch us unawares. We must always be fully prepared. “For our struggle is not against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world
rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly
places.”
So often, we find ourselves worrying
about all the troubles of this world. We
worry about our earthly life, about being physically hurt or killed, or dying
from cancer or other horrible diseases, from accidents or criminal
attacks. Yet, Paul reminds us that the
real danger, that each one of us faces, is the deadly attacks on our eternal
souls. Not to discount the physical
troubles we all will face, but this life is short, regardless, so we need to be
protected from those things that can rob us of eternal life.
While we may well worry about human
enemies, it is instead the spiritual forces of evil behind them that pose our
greatest danger. Satan and his evil
hordes will not stop trying to steal away everyone they can from the Lord’s
protection. Thus, they use the rulers, authorities,
and world rulers of this darkness that Paul mentions, here, all those people,
things, and authorities, that, whether they know it or not, serve the devil’s
horrible plans. We are continually
locked in a life and death struggle with the forces of evil. So, lest we succumb to the demons’ weapons, we
must Put on the full armor of God.
Now, it is a fact that the devil can
no longer win this war for our souls, because Christ has already won the
eternal victory on the cross. Jesus’
resurrection declares with power that the eternal victory has been won. Therefore, when we are armed with His word, God
has ensured that we will have no weak spots, no vulnerable place that the devil
can use to his advantage.
But be warned, in spite of suffering
complete defeat, the devil continues to roam this world until Jesus returns,
and he will use every form of guerilla warfare he can dream up to steal away
those who are weak in the faith. The
evil one considers it his personal glory to murder as many souls as he
can. The devil’s hatred, and jealousy,
of the Lord Jesus makes that evil angel our formidable enemy. There is no soft way to say this; the devil
would like nothing more than to entice away from Jesus as many blood-bought
souls as he can steal. We need God’s
perfect protection. We need the full armor of God.
Jesus once said, " My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never
perish. No one will snatch them out of
my hand.” (John 10:27-29) The idea of sending
defenseless sheep into battle against a powerful foe, might seem ludicrous to
the world, but God has provided us with all the shielding armor and powerful
weapons necessary so that we cannot be defeated or lost. Paul wrote, “For
this reason, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to take a
stand on the evil day and, after you have done everything, to stand.”
God, through Christ, made us victorious
over Satan, that liar and murdering thief.
Likewise, God provides us with everything we need to defend ourselves
from the attacks of the evil ones. Fully
equipped as God’s soldiers, we are prepared to ward off every attack; we cannot
be harmed. Instead, having Put on the full armor of God, we will
stand victorious on the day our King returns in triumph and eternal glory to
judge the world.
So, what is God’s armor? Paul tells us as he says, “Stand, then, with the belt of truth buckled
around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness fastened in place, and
with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace tied to your feet like
sandals. At all times hold up the shield
of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of
the Evil One. Also take the helmet of
salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” The
Holy Spirit is telling us to stand ready for victory. The eternal triumph is already ours when He
equips us for the battle.
Paul speaks of being protected by
truth. The truth he mentions is not some
nebulous opinion of this world’s imagination, or a truth that is conditional
upon various opinions. No, this truth is
God’s holy word. In God there is nothing
false. Whether His word lines up with
human reason isn’t open to question.
God’s truth stands far above anything of this world. It is made perfectly reliable by God’s
perfect constancy, and so it is reliable for our protection from the devil’s
lies. No matter what falsehood the devil
or this world wants to throw against us, God’s Word stands forever.
Remember how Jesus responded to the
devil’s temptation? Jesus didn’t try to
reason with that slanderer. Jesus simply
defeated the devil with Scripture, because the devil cannot overcome that
truth. Therefore, should Satan come
whispering in your ear that you are so good that God must love you, you can
repeat God’s truth with the prophet, Isaiah,
that “We all like sheep have gone
astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way,” (53:6) thereby
confessing that we have, indeed, sinned against God. But then, when the devil turns and accuses us
of our sinful wandering, we can also reply with the prophet, “And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity
of us all.” (53:6) The devil and this world love to tempt us and
throw lies in our faces. God’s truth
destroys the lie.
We wear “the breastplate of righteousness,” simply by believing in Christ
Jesus as our one and only Savior. His
perfect righteousness is our protection us from the devil’s accusations, for “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for
us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) All of our sins were removed from us and put
on Christ Jesus. He paid for our sins
with His death on the cross. Christ’s resurrection
declares with power that the devil can no longer accuse us before the
Judge. Through Jesus’ holy life and
innocent death, you and I have been counted not guilty. God remembers your sins no more. (Jeremiah
31:34)
Paul mentions,
“the gospel of peace tied to your feet
like sandals.”
His point is that God protects every part of our being with His Gospel
of salvation through faith in Christ.
The soldier of Paul’s picture would never go into battle without as much
protection as possible—every vital area was covered. Likewise, complete saving coverage is put on
us through the Gospel of peace between God and men.
Paul
wrote, “At all times hold up
the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming
arrows of the Evil One.”
When you were in confirmation class, you maybe didn’t like having to
memorize Bible passages, but by committing them to your memory, the Holy Spirit
is working in God’s Word, both to give you saving faith in the Triune God and
to equip you against the flaming barbs of all the evil forces that attack
us. The devil will certainly send his
burning arrows at us, but we don’t have to suffer the devastating wounds they
try to inflict. When we hold up our
God-given faith in Christ Jesus, the devil’s attacks can’t harm us. As Luther wrote in his great hymn, “One
little word can fell him.”
“Also take the helmet of
salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” At
your baptism, God dressed you in His protective armor, covering you from head
to toe with His name. He wants you to
wear that armor every moment of your life until He calls you home to
heaven. The helmet of salvation protects
your thinking. The person who does not
know Christ has no defense for the devil’s lies. Therefore we need to be armed with all the
tools of God’s Word. Every word the Holy
Spirit caused to be written for us in the Bible was given for one purpose: that
we might know and believe in Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior, that we might
believe and trust in Him for the forgiveness of all sins, for our adoption into
His eternal family, so that we never need fear the assaults of Satan and his
evil minions, but rather rejoice in the face of any trouble because Jesus has
put His protective armor over us to preserve us through the spiritual battles
of this world and to bring us safely home.
In the Word of God, we have both
defensive and offensive weapons, the perfect tools both for our protection and
to drive away the wicked foes. We need
to know God’s Word and make it part of our everyday existence. When the devil attacks with his temptations
and lies, there isn’t always time to run home and pick up your tools of
war. We need to be dressed in them continually
so that we do not fall.
So, my friends, when the Word is preached,
come and hear it. Regularly eat and
drink Christ’s true body and blood by which He himself strengthens your faith
so that no attack of the devil can harm you.
At every opportunity, open your Bibles and continue to dress yourself in
the armor God gave to keep you safe. The
Father put His seal on you at your baptism—don’t throw away His protection by
abandoning His holy Word. Rather,
immerse yourself in it. Carry it with
you wherever you go, tucked firmly in your mind. Then, whatever battle comes your way, you
will have God’s strong protection, not only lying handily nearby, but covering
you from head to toe with faith in His Son, our Lord Jesus. May the God of salvation and eternal life
walk with you always as you daily continue Putting on the full armor of God. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all
understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life
everlasting. Amen.
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