Our Unseen Battle; The Belt of Truth and Breastplate of Righteousness

Well, friends, this morning we continue

our series on the armor of God from

Ephesians 6, talking about this unseen

battle we're fighting. And last week, I

actually didn't talk much about the

armor itself. Uh, rather, I used our

time to try and unmask the real enemy

that we're up against. Uh, to talk about

um evil and Satan more broadly. Uh, got

you talking this week, that's for sure.

There's been some great questions and

conversations.

Um, I would encourage you if you were

not here last Sunday, please go back and

watch the YouTube, um, please go grab

the sermon transcript. I always I write

my sermons in a full transcript and then

post them on our website so that you can

do that if you ever need to, but we also

live stream them, so they're on our

YouTube. I I say that just because

you're going to want that information as

we build through this series.

Um, and the reason that's so important

is because when we start talking about

an enemy, we need to remember that our

enemy is never against flesh and blood.

It's never against one another. It's

against these other forces of evil in

our world. And so no matter how much

folks might bother us, no matter how we

may disagree with them, no matter how

awful their actions,

and some of them are truly awful, we're

not actually against one another. We're

not fighting against human beings.

They're never our real enemy. Our real

enemy is evil. That's what we're up

against. Last week, I drew on this

metaphor that NT Wright uses. We're to

focus on the puppet master, the forces

of evil that really are animating and

controlling all the lesser puppets.

And when we attack one another, we end

up colluding with evil rather than

fighting against it. It's not the

puppets we're after. It's the puppet

master who we need to pay attention to.

That's why it's important, I think, that

we remain open to conceptualizing evil

in this way, in a more mystical and

spiritual way. Because if in our

worldview, our cosmology, if there is no

room for us to have any other enemy but

one another,

you can see where that leads real fast.

I mean, if we don't have any other

framework for where evil exists, where

it's located, except in the face of

other human beings, well, then we're

headed for mutual destruction. You might

as well start planning the next war. No,

at least one place.

If we don't believe in demons, we will

demonize one another.

So that's why it's really important to

keep this more mystical and spiritual

understanding of evil, which is hard for

us in our own time.

Um, I would encourage you if this is

something that struck a nerve for you or

maybe you're a cradle Presbyterian and

you did not grow up talking very much

about evil, um, I would recommend the

work of Walter Wink. What a name that

is, right? uh he's an author, a scholar,

and a a theologian that has given his

whole life to the study of evil. He died

several decades ago. Um but he's

remarkable and he's done some pretty

seinal work on the subject. And I would

also recommend Entright just co-authored

a book with Michael Bird called uh the

powers, Jesus and the powers. So it's a

little more modern, might be easier to

read. Um, but those are two places to

start if you're like suddenly interested

or come to the Q&A that Jared and I are

going to do after after worship. But

let's begin this morning by hearing the

word of the Lord from Ephesians 6:10

Ephesians 6:10–18

through18.

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 the rulers, against the

authorities, against the powers of this

dark world, and against the 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. And in addition to all of 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. With

this in mind, be alert and always keep

on praying for all the Lord's people.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be

to God.

Well, this morning I want to dive into

this armor a little bit and and it's

clear that Paul is offering us here some

very good irony, isn't he? Um, we get

this giant spoof on what armor is

normally used for, right? He's not

talking about bronze or silver or

leather. He's not talking about actual

battle and violence. No, he tells us to

put on the belt of truth and a

breastplate of righteousness and to

carry the sword of the spirit.

This is apparently how we fight evil,

how we will defeat evil,

how we will address the powers of this

stark time.

It's it's how we're going to be able to

stand against that puppet master that

has far too much authority

in so many people's lives. It's with

things like truth and justice and peace

and salvation and faith.

Paul tells the Ephesians, "You have an

enemy.

There is a battle.

You're going to need to armor up." But

then he absolutely just inverts

what sort of armor we're supposed to put

on to go into the fight.

But I don't want you to confuse irony or

this metaphor even for something like

weakness or cowardice

because Paul doesn't just pull this

metaphor out of thin air. He uses it in

several of his letters, but he takes it

directly from the Old Testament, from

the Hebrew scriptures in Isaiah 59.

It's the the imagery actually weaves its

way through much of Isaiah. And and

here's what you need to know about

Isaiah. It's a massive book. It's

actually like three different books

pulled into one library. And it has to

do um with outlining what God's people

are going through in exile. It's filled

with history. It's filled with prophetic

warning. And these people ended up in

exile because they continued to turn

away from God. They continued to harm

one another. They made their fellow

human beings their enemy.

It it it's kind of a lot actually. If

you've ever read the book, it almost

reads like turning on cable news to me.

It's like one more bad tragic story of

evil on every page.

One more story where the people have

turned on one another. One more attack.

One more sexual assault.

One more government cover up.

One where one more moment where religion

is used and weaponized to hurt others.

One more story of the poor and the

marginalized

being attacked or ignored.

Sound familiar to anybody else?

But the reason Isaiah is such an

important book is less to do with like

the bad news that it's explaining um and

it has to do with the constant hope that

it declares on each of these pages

amidst the tragedy that God is going to

come in the person of the Messiah and

change things that death and evil

actually will not get the last word. And

so even though the people turn away from

goodness and wholeness and justice,

God will not let that be how the story

ends.

And so God will come in the person of

the Messiah to make things new. Death

will be defeated. Evil be will be

conquered. And humanity, all those

puppets, they will be set free.

And how is the Messiah in the book of

Isaiah going to show up?

He's going to show up dressed in some

armor that you might recognize. I want

to give you just a few verses from

Isaiah 59. I'm going to start off with

just a bit of that bad news so you can

see the context.

For your hands are stained with blood,

your fingers with guilt. Your lips have

spoken falsely. Your tongue mutters

wicked things. No one calls for justice.

No one pleads a case with integrity.

They rely on empty arguments. They utter

lies. They conceive trouble and give

birth to evil. The way of peace, they

don't know it. So justice is far from us

and righteousness does not reach us. We

look for light, but it's all darkness.

We look for justice, but we find none.

We look for deliverance, but it's far

away. Truth is nowhere to be found. And

whoever shuns this evil becomes the next

prey.

Sounds really familiar to me. And Isaiah

declares, "The Lord saw all of this and

was agrieved that there was no justice,

that there was no one righteous to

intervene. So then by his own arm, he

brought about the victory, and his own

justice sustained him. He put on

righteousness as his breastplate, and

the helmet of salvation on his head. He

put on the garments of vengeance, the

armor of justice, and wrapped himself in

zeal as a cloak. And he will come to

Zion as the redeemer.

Earlier in Isaiah, we read that

righteousness will be the belt about his

loins and faithfulness the belt around

his waist.

In 527,

how beautiful upon the mountains are the

feet of the one, the Messiah, bringing

good news, announcing peace, bearing the

gospel, and announcing salvation, saying

to the people, "Your God is king."

Any of that armor sound familiar to you?

Now,

Paul tells us that when we put on the

armor, we're actually putting on God's

own armor.

God's own armor.

the same armor that our savior, Messiah

Jesus used to conquer sin and death in

the cross and resurrection.

And because the spirit of God indwells

each of us right now in this moment,

friends, that armor is available to us

too, we just have to put it on.

We just have to put it on.

Which is why if you go through your New

Testament, and please do, what you're

going to find is like on every other

page, you are being reminded that the

most true thing about you is that you

are now in Christ.

And so, clothe yourself in Christ. Put

on Christ.

Put on the armor of your God.

Friends, this armor that we put on, it's

the only thing that will be enough.

Scholar Marcus Bart writes this in his

commentary on Ephesians. If these arms

are spiritual and if they are sufficient

for God and Jesus Christ, well, they

will certainly be good enough for the

saints.

So, as we briefly look at the first

couple pieces this morning, the belt of

truth and the breastplate of

righteousness,

another word for that is justice. We

remember that all of these pieces, they

are the very attributes of our God. And

so they can be relied on to win the

battles that we're up against, too.

If we're willing to put them on, if

we're willing to wrap them securely

around us, they will work for us, too.

And they'll work not just like

personally and individually in your own

life, but they'll work for us

communally, corporately

as a group that gathers together to name

evil.

Paul is giving instructions to a

community. In fact, this is so important

that you pay attention to this, friends,

as we go through this series.

God is interested in us,

not just individual soldiers, but the

larger army, if you will. You should

know, and the women in our midweek Bible

study have become Pauline scholars.

We've been studying Paul's letters for

over a year now. Um, but every time you

turn through your New Testament, what

you're going to find is every time you,

it says you do this or you all do this

or you go there or you should put on

Christ, the word is actually you all.

You all, it's in the plural. It's not

singular. Almost ever, unless Paul is

talking about a specific character,

almost every single time you see you in

your New Testament, it is actually you

all.

really.

And that's deeply important.

As you go through and you read, you

should be as you're reading just saying

y'all every time so that you can hear it

and so that you remember that this is

not written just to one person. I mean,

Paul has no conception, you guys, that

like 2,000 years later, we're all going

to have an individual copy of this

letter in our own preferred translation,

no less. and then we're going to all

read it as if it's like individually

advice for us. That is like not in his

mind at all. He is writing to all of us

to the community of faith. And so we

ought to read that way.

Dr. Steven Fowl puts this well when he

writes, "It is very easy to read this

discussion of the armor of God and then

to assume that this is a set of

instructions to individual believers to

take up the armor of God. That is not

the way the text reads. Rather, the

command to take up the armor of God is a

summons to the community as a whole.

Taking up the armor of God is a communal

practice integrally tied to the unity of

the church and the church's witness to

the powers.

So this belt of truth,

this breastplate of righteousness that

we're to wear, these essential

attributes of God, they are always more

about we and never just about me.

We, not me.

Now to be sure,

will this armor help you personally?

Will integrating truth and justice and

righteousness into your life have an

impact on your personal stuff, your

personal battles? Of course. Of course

it will.

Just like one soldier in armor is going

to do better in onetoone combat. Yeah.

But the point of soldiers and armor is

that we would actually all gather

together.

That we would be a part of this larger

army.

That we would actually have some power

and weight in naming what is evil in the

world and doing something about it. One

soldier is great, but an army is a

another thing altogether.

So let's talk about truth and

righteousness. Let's just define some

terms.

truth. The word alleia, it's it's not

just factual accuracy, though it

includes that. Uh it's also unconcealed,

unvarnished honesty.

It's it's what is real.

That's what truth means. It is to know

what is right and good

and true.

righteousness, justice,

to kaioyos in the Greek. It it's just to

be fair,

to be just,

to be ethical. It's moral uprightness.

It means to do the right thing.

And so truth and righteousness, truth

and justice, they're just like

one side of the same coin, which is why

I'm talking about them together today.

Paul is telling us that our belt and our

breastplate, they are to help us know

what is right and then do what is right.

As soldiers, as part of this larger

army, if you will, we are to know what

is good and right and true. And then we

are to do what is good and right and

true.

So let's think about this first kind of

as the individual, the personal, the me,

if you will. This means that we're to be

people that have integrity,

that we're honest,

that when we speak, people can just

count on us to have told them what is

real.

It means we don't lie. It also means we

don't stretch the truth or massage the

facts.

It means that we also don't lie by

omission either

where we just like leave out some

details that might serve us to cover up.

We don't live in the shadows.

We don't live and hide in the dark with

our addictions.

No, we're people of the light,

which means we own our mistakes.

It means we choose accountability. It

means we try and let people see the real

us.

That we're the same person no matter

where we are.

And that when we blow it, we confess.

We say we're sorry

because we all will blow it.

This week I was joking with our staff um

and we were talking about some

encounters we've had with folks that

veer over into the lying category quite

a bit. Um, and just the funny humor

around children, especially trying on

lying for the first time. And I was

telling them that part of the reason I

am so committed to being a person of

truth, I want to tell you it's because

I'm just so godly, but honestly, it's

just so I can sleep at night. I mean, to

be perfectly clear, I can't even sleep

at night if I think I've hurt someone's

feelings.

Like, I I'm a big feeler. I want to take

care of stuff. I want to handle it.

And so when I watch people that choose

to live in deception, like this is just

the way they operate in the world and

they're constantly stressing out.

They're constantly worried about like

the the lie they told and who they told

it to and when the truth might come out

and what might happen. Bro, that looks

stressful.

That looks incredibly overwhelming to

me. I don't know how they do it and get

a good night's sleep. I couldn't. A life

of deception is just not for me because

I need a solid 8 to nine hours.

It's really true. I'm sure of it that

you know when you tell the truth, you

got nothing to hide, which means you get

better sleep, friends.

Now, in order to armor ourselves up with

truth and justice, I think this also

means that we have to be really savvy

about all the half-truths that are like

constantly coming at us. And they are

constantly coming at us.

I think this is exactly the sort of

weapons that are most effective for evil

to use. Right?

Spurgeon, the great late pastor and

preacher said, "It's not about knowing

the difference between right and wrong.

It's knowing the difference between

right and almost right."

Right?

Evil is sneaky.

It's subtle, friends. And so, we have to

pay attention. There are all sorts of

things out there that sound right and

that sound true and that are designed to

hook you. But when you sit with them for

just a second, when you open your eyes

and you watch for just a minute, you

realize, "Oh, that's deception.

That's not actually true all the way

down. It's a lie. It's a sneaky lie, but

it's still a lie.

This requires our vigilance, friends. It

really does. We don't get to be people.

We don't get to be a community that just

like puts its head in the sand. We're

not called to that. No, we've got to pay

attention to what's happening around us.

And how do we do that? This is going to

sound like the churchy answer. I know

you love it when I do this. How do we

know what is really true and good and

right? How do we know what to do?

We look to Jesus Christ, friends, as our

example, as the lens with which we view

the world. This Jesus who says, "I am

the truth."

Who says to us, "Not sure which way to

go. I am the way."

We we look at Paul and the instruction

to fix our gaze on Christ,

to gaze on Jesus, who will guard our

hearts and minds, we're told, and help

us think on things that are lovely and

pure and good and true and right and

praiseworthy and excellent. Philippians

4.

When we're unsure what God might want

from us, we remember like Jared just

prayed in his prayer,

we're to act justly. We're to love

mercy. We're to walk humbly with our

God.

And when we get confused like what's the

next right step for us to take right

now, we remember the words of Christ,

the words of scripture that declare,

"Love the Lord your God with all your

heart and with all your soul and with

all your mind and with your strength."

And then just love your neighbor as

yourself. You can always go right back

there. Right back there.

Because that is what is true.

And communally as people trying to do

this together, friends, that we were

called to be a part of, it is essential

that we don't just like know what is

good and right and true, but that we

actually do it in the world.

As Presbyterians, I think we're often

guilty of this,

but we're not ever going to be able to

fight against evil if we're trying to

help like others get free.

by our exceptional knowledge

or our theological prowess.

I often tell you, I actually don't care

what you believe. I'd like to talk about

how you live.

The the checklist of whether you believe

certain things. Cool story. We can talk

about that some other time. Tell me how

it impacts your real life.

We're supposed to know the truth and

then do it. Live it.

And so if what we learn in here, if what

we're learning here does not spill out

to here

and to here,

we are walking into the battle without

any armor, friends. We are of no use to

anybody.

Our our knowing and our doing have to be

connected. And so let me just tell you

what that looks like practically here. A

as a community, at least at first press,

it means that we're committed to

aligning our knowing and our doing, our

orthodoxy and our orthopraxy.

We align them in all our mission and our

values, our ministry, our spending. We

don't align with power or popularity or

politics. Come on. No.

integrity, honesty, the pursuit of truth

and justice for ourselves, for our

community, and then for all the people

that don't have access to it yet.

It's important

some of the ways I think this plays out.

It means we don't have parking lot

meetings after we've had the real

meeting to try and push an agenda

through. Nope. Got no time for that.

It means we don't cook the books

and we don't exaggerate our membership.

It means everybody gets to see the books

whenever they want.

It means also that we keep reminding

people of what's true, about who we are

and about who our world is in this

moment. Which means we cannot avoid

touchy subjects

even when they might hurt our feelings

from time to time.

We don't we don't let unhealth go on

just because it's been going on for a

long time. We name it and address it so

we can heal and move forward.

We're trying to name what is good and

right and true and then live out what is

good and right and true. So that we can

stand not in our own strength but in the

strength of God. In the strength of our

God.

And so, friends, let me ask you this

question as we turn to prayer and close

this out.

Where might you need to be more honest

in your own personal life and then your

communal life, the places you have

influence?

Maybe in your marriage or your family,

maybe in your business or your finances,

maybe in your habits or your addictions.

Where might you need to let truth and

righteousness and justice wrap more

firmly around you?

And then the second question is how can

you close the gap between what's up here

and what is happening here

between the head and the actions? What's

one thing you can do? Not later, not

after you overthink it and talk yourself

out of it, but what's one thing you can

do this week to close the gap between

those two?

Because that's how we put the armor on,

friends. One step at a time, one leg at

a time, one buckle at a time.

So, let's take a moment and pray.

Reflect on that.

God, we invite you, the very spirit of

God who indwells each of us to speak to

our hearts and our lives.

And may we recognize your voice because

it might be one of conviction, but it is

never one of shame.

Help us see what is true

about how deeply you love us

and about how deeply you love this

world.

Help us know down to our toes what it is

you're calling us to do next, both in

our personal lives and communally.

Help us guard ourselves with truth and

with justice. Put your armor around us,

Lord, and protect us even from

ourselves.

And give us strength

as we face down our own dark days, our

own enemy, and do battle against the

evil in our world.

Amen.