Put On the Full Armor: Standing Firm in the Evil Day- Eph 6:13-17a

Good morning, and welcome to the preaching series of Dillingham Moravian Church.

I am Pastor Simon, and we are here to worship the Lord together as we engage

in the study of God's Word.

And what a joy that is that we get to participate in.

One year, my family and I were staying at a B&B in Anchorage,

and a moose and a calf wandered into the yard of the B&B that we were staying at.

However, the German shepherd that belonged to the owner of the B&B was outside the house.

And when that shepherd saw that moose, the dog took the moose's presence as

a threat to his household that he was to protect.

Thus, that dog launched itself at the moose. My family and I had just come from

excursion into town for shopping, and we were still in the car when this started to happen.

Wisely, we stayed in the car and watched this dog continue to nip at the haunches of the moose.

And as a result, the mother moose saw that dog as a threat to its calf,

and thus the mama moose was starting to get very angry at that dog.

The dog probably wasn't the smartest that it could have been since it kept on

trying to bite that moose.

And eventually, the mama moose kicked that dog really hard and took off with its baby.

My point with this story is to share with you that the dog was protecting its

own against what it viewed as an enemy and a very real threat.

The greatest enemy to the Christian.

Is satan or the devil in god's great mercy god has given us protection against

the attacks of satan so that we can stand firm against him let's pray oh heavenly

father as we go to your word and as we.

Prayerfully ask to for you to work in us so that we can hear your word so that

we can and interact with your word,

and that you can change us and transform us within so that we live according to your word.

Please, Lord, work in us today. Use us, use this message.

Teach us how to follow you by your grace in Jesus Christ, our Savior.

We praise you, and Lord, through the Holy Spirit, work in us.

In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Here at Dillingham Moravian Church, we have been learning through a teaching series

on Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

The theme of this letter is the unity of God and how God has unified the church

in Christ, and then how we as a church can practically live in the wonderful unity of God.

Previously in Ephesians chapter 6, God taught us through Paul that Christ believers

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

are to surrender themselves to being enabled by the controlling power and strength

of God and live empowered with His strength.

Secondly, Paul made the point that Christians are to put on the full armor of

God so that we can stand firm against the real enemy, the devil,

and his forces of darkness.

And this is where we come to our passage today in Ephesians 6, verses 13-20.

Ephesians 6:13–20

Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist

in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on

the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

In addition to all, having taken up the shield of faith, with which you will

be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Also receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit,

which is the word of God, praying at all times with prayer and petition in the Spirit,

and to this end being on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all

the saints, as well as on my behalf,

that words may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with

boldness the mystery of the gospel,

for which I am an ambassador in chains, so that in proclaiming it I may speak

boldly as I ought to speak.

I wanted to read this whole passage for context, but I will be finishing at verse 17 today.

The first truth that I believe God is teaching us in this section is that as

Christ followers, we are to take up the full armor of God to stand firm.

As Paul wrote in Ephesians 6, verse 13, Therefore take up the full armor of

Ephesians 6:13

God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

I want you to notice two features of verse 13.

First off, Paul commanded Christ's believers to take up the full armor of God,

so that they will be able to resist in the evil day.

Every part of the armor of God must be worn, and used by the Christian in order

for us to resist and take and stand firm against the devil's attack.

Why is this distinction so important? It's important because if we as a Christian

have the truth of God without faith in Christ,

then we may know the right doctrines, but we have no power from Christ through

the Holy Spirit to live as Christ is living in us.

It is faith that enables Christ through the Holy Spirit to work through us and

in us. It is faith in Christ that God sees as justification before God.

However, if we trust in God and do not have the truth, then we really do not

know who God is and what He has done and what He will do and what we are called

to do as followers of Christ.

In fact, we cannot truly trust God unless we know Him by His truth.

Moreover, if we do not have faith, or rather if we do have faith,

but do not know the truth of God's Word, then we cannot surrender and live in

the righteousness of God.

We'd be living on our own righteousness, which is, according to the Bible,

like disgusting, unclean premenstrual rags.

We would be legalistic like the Pharisees in Jesus' time.

And we could not share the gospel with God's grace and power if we do not know

the truth of the gospel and trust

Christ as our only Lord and Savior and surrender to His righteousness.

My point is that every part of the armor of God is connected to the other,

and without one of the armor's pieces, the whole suit of spiritual armor will

not work, and we will be overrun by Satan's offensive.

Secondly, Paul referred to the evil day.

According to one commentator, the apostle is not only speaking of this present

time between the two comings of Jesus, but is also alerting believers to the

dangers of the devil's schemes on critical occasions in this present age.

There may appear to be times of reprieve for Christians, but they must not be

lulled into a false sense of security, thinking that the battle is over or that

it's not especially difficult.

They must always be prepared and put on the full armor of God,

for the devil will attack when least expected.

It's essential for us as Christians to not get too hung up on one piece of the

armor of God, Paul describes here in Ephesians 6.

Without meaning to, some Christian denominations focus more on one than on the other.

We absolutely need every single virtue and attribute of God's armor that God

can give us, because it is God Almighty who will fight Satan on our behalf,

and thus we need to be able to access and know the God who will fight Satan

for us, and we can be completely certain that God will defeat him.

James, in James 4, verses 7-8, wrote, Be subject, therefore, to God.

James 4:7–8

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God,

and he will draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Many Christians believe that

we ourselves have the power to resist the devil, and he will flee from us.

But in the same verse, right before resisting the devil, James commanded us to submit to God.

And then later, right after that passage.

We're called to draw near to God and repent of our sins before God.

And then we'll be able to resist the evil one.

Secondly, as Christians, we must be constantly alert to the devil's schemes

and know that things will get much worse before it gets better.

There will be a time period coming when there will be the persecution of Christians

the world over like the world has never seen before. That is coming.

But we must always be ready with the knowledge that Satan can and is attacking

and scheming all the time.

We're not to be paranoid, but we're to be ready nonetheless.

Now we'll start studying the defensive pieces of the armor of God,

because to be ready for attack, we must have our armor on.

The first part that God through Paul is teaching us is that as Christ believers,

we are to gird our loins with truth. Amen.

Paul wrote in Ephesians 6, verse 14, Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth.

Ephesians 6:14

I want you to see that Paul wrote, having girded your loins.

There are three words regarding this piece of armor that I want to bring to your attention.

The first word is girded, which meant to be or become fastened with a belt or

similar device for securing one's clothing, usually in preparation for strenuous activity or labor.

The word here for loins meant the place where a belt or girdle is worn,

or it can also mean the place of the reproductive organs.

Now, until recently, I've taken the girding of the loins to be buckling on an

armored skirt around the soldier's waist to protect their reproductive area. And that was true.

Yet I've come to change my mind on how Paul used this concept of girding one's loins with truth.

According to one commentator, the idea of fastening clothing securely around

one's waist signifies preparation for vigorous activity, and in this case, readiness for battle.

Meaning that a Roman soldier during his off time wore a loose-fitting robe,

but when he went into battle, he used the belt to cinch up his robe so that

it did not encumber him and stop him from moving freely.

One of the keys to good defense and a good offense is the ability to move at will.

For example, this is similar to the use of a belt to hold up our pants,

since for many of us, if we did not have a belt, our pants would fall down.

And that would definitely get us killed in a battle, right? However,

there are two ways of viewing the word truth that Paul used in Ephesians 6, verse 14.

Ephesians 6:14

The first way to understand this truth is truthfulness, sincerity, a good conscience.

The second view of this word, truth, refers to the truth of God, meaning God's Word.

We know well that God's Word has the power to protect our spiritual lives as

we preach to ourselves the truth of God to counter the attacks of Satan.

Yet it's essential to know that both views of the truth in this verse are very

valid because truthfulness and honesty come from the truth of God's Word being

lived out in our lives by the Holy Spirit.

And just as the belt cinches up his robe So that soldier does not get caught

up in it So also the Christian belts on God's truth,

that allows us to be truthful and honest so that nothing trips up our spiritual lives.

Dishonesty, lies, and a dirty conscience definitely will cause believers to

be entangled in Satan's web.

The writer of Hebrews explained this well in Hebrews 12, verse 1.

Hebrews 12:1

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us,

and here's what I want you to see, laying aside every weight in the sin which so easily entangles us.

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

Paul continued on in Ephesians 6.14 to command that the Christian put on the

breastplate of righteousness.

According to one article about the newest military body armor dating back in

2024, so it's about two years old,

ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene,

is one of the most outstanding materials in modern body armor.

This material is much lighter than conventional steel and ceramic plates,

yet offers similar and sometimes better ballistic protection.

Weaving these fibers into armor design provides flexibility for more comfortable

wear without compromising safety.

The great advantage of this body armor is that it can stop rounds from a rifle

at the maximum velocity while being light as possible.

Graphene is another emerging game-changer material used in body armor technology.

A one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice.

Integrating graphene strength with armor designs has opened up opportunities

for ultra-thin and ultra-light armor with excellent ballistic resistance.

Ceramic polymer hybrids. This makes ceramic armor ideal for stopping armor-piercing

rounds and has been used extensively.

Incorporating polymers also lightens ceramic plates. Therefore,

soldiers and law enforcement personnel require high levels of protection without

having to carry the weight of traditional ceramic plates.

And this one is cool. Liquid armor technology is another new development that splashed in 2024.

The idea lies in the non-Newtonian fluids, which react differently to applied stress.

Normally, these liquids are flexible.

They harden upon impact, and thus dispersing the energy over a wider area.

Liquid armor technology is under investigation for both military and civilian

body armor applications.

I share these things with you because we now have amazing armor today.

But God, in Paul and through Paul, has been teaching that we are to put on the

breastplate of righteousness.

The breastplate was a piece of armor that came over your chest to protect from

being stabbed in the chest, which, of course, is not a good idea.

According to verse 14, righteousness is the breastplate of the armor of God.

And whose righteousness?

Certainly not ours. Paul in Romans 3, verse 10 through 12, established that

Romans 3:10–12

we as humans are incapable of righteousness on our own.

There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands.

There is none who seeks for God.

All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who

does good. There is not even one.

We cannot work for our holiness in any way.

It is through Jesus Christ's sacrificial

death on the cross that His righteousness is now placed upon us.

And because of Christ's sacrifice, we are now raised to the position of sons

and heirs of God in Christ.

We, you and I, are holy and blameless in the Father's sight,

as Paul in Ephesians 1, verse 4 wrote.

Ephesians 1:4

As we, as Christ followers, trust in the truth, that Christ's righteousness

has now been imparted to us, we now have the ability and power to live out God's

righteousness in our world today.

God, through Paul, promised that as we act out the rightness of God in our minds

and our actions, we are protected from the attacks of the devil.

Just like I talked about earlier, if we live by God's righteous standards,

we will live with a clean conscience. It is hard for Satan to mess with the

mind of a person whose conscience is clean.

Additionally, when we live according to the righteous standards of God,

we live peaceful, hard-working lives that exemplify Christ's love and holiness to our neighbors.

And so, with the exception to unreasonable persecution, Satan won't have anything

to make up lies about us or slander us about.

We must also understand that being righteous not only includes our morality,

but also our intentional good actions and words towards others in the name of

Christ to make disciples for His glory.

As Paul in Romans 12, verse 21 explained, Do not be overcome by evil,

Romans 12:21

but overcome evil with good.

The fourth piece of God's armor that Paul described is that as Christians,

we are to shod our feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

Dillingham in early June is a town humming with activity.

The kings are arriving, the commercial fishermen are arriving,

working on their boats, the canneries are busy with getting ready for the fishing season.

When all the preparation is ready on the boats, the captains and crews wait

either in the harbor or they're anchored out somewhere waiting for the ADFG

announcement of the first opener.

The goal is for all the prep work to be done before the opener so that when

the announcement is given, fishing can start immediately.

This concept of being in a state of readiness is what Paul was explaining about

when he wrote about shotting your feet with the gospel of peace.

According to Bible teacher and apologist Del Tackett, the Greek word that Paul

used, peace, is equal to the Hebrew word shalom, which meant all of God's good

will has been poured out towards his people.

Shalom didn't just mean peace, but all of God's good for that person.

All of God's good, his love, his mercy, his protection, his salvation, his peace and joy.

Shalom is the state of well-being that we as Christians are now in right relationship with God.

And through Christ's death and resurrection, we have been brought into a state

of peace or a shalom with God.

Again, the Romans were the only military that wore boots into battle,

and these boots had spikes on them so that when they charged,

they could stand firm against the attack.

So this knowledge of the peace that we now have with God can give us a surety

of God's love and peace of heart and mind amidst Satan's attacks.

But there's another aspect of shodding your feet with the preparation with the

gospel of peace that I want you to understand.

Sin is inward and self-focused.

Discipleship is outward.

Christ's followers are called to shod themselves with the purpose of being ready

to share the gospel of peace with those around us.

The word that Paul used for preparation or readiness meant the state of being

ready, prepared for use or action.

And what I'm getting at here is that as we are acting with the other-centered

action of sharing the gospel, which is a part of disciple-making,

we are then focused on doing God's loving will rather than being focused on ourselves.

And this is a huge defense against the attacks and temptations of Satan.

The disciple of Christ will always be prepared to share the gospel of God's peace.

There's another crucial piece of the armor of God that I want to bring your

attention to, and that is.

The shield of faith. Most of us know about shields and what they do,

but the Romans had super deluxe shields.

These wall shields were about four to six feet high, and they were interlocking.

The classic mode of defense and attack was to crouch behind their shields and

lock them all together, and no arrow could penetrate that huge shield.

They would also lock the shields together, and there was a hole in the shields

where they put their spears through, and then they would march and run down

anyone in their path. No one would escape.

In Ephesians 6, verse 16, Paul was not just talking about personal faith in

Ephesians 6:16

Christ, but about the interlocking faith with fellow believers in Christ.

Just as it was Rome's most dangerous weapon and an effective defense,

this is the method in which they conquered the known world at their time.

Living in constant unity and fellowship with other believers in Christ works

the same way for us against the attacks of Satan.

And that's also a tremendously effective weapon against Satan.

And an amazing witness to unbelievers when they see a whole community faithfully

believing in Christ together, loving each other, keeping each other accountable, living life together.

You see, church is not about the building, but about Christ believers living life together.

Together in their common faith in Christ. As the culture around us sees communities

of faith in Christ act in loving faith, the Holy Spirit uses the faith of the

interlocked church to draw people to Christ and to save people.

And one of the main reasons that faith is such a powerful defense is that faith

is the spiritual mechanism that allows the Holy Spirit to release Christ's power

to work in us and through us.

As Paul described in Galatians 2, verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ,

Galatians 2:20

and is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And here's what I want you to hear.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, meaning in this body,

I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.

The last defensive armor that Paul wrote about in this section,

was the helmet of salvation.

It's also very important to protect our minds against the attacks of the evil one.

The understanding and confidence that comes from the knowledge of our salvation

in Jesus protects us mentally.

We don't have to worry about what is going on in the future or what sins we

have committed in the past.

We have been saved, not through anything that we have done, but through the

love of God in Christ's death on the cross and through His resurrection.

And I want to encourage you, there was a time when I was unsure about my salvation.

And it was through studying the Bible here, in Ephesians, that convinced me

that I am saved because of what Christ has done on the cross and through His resurrection.

See, it's so much easier for Satan to attack us when we are unsure whether we

are saved or not, whether we are Christ's own.

But the truth is that Christ owns us, body, mind, and soul. We belong to Him.

We are His, and we must trust that truth.

The first truth that God has taught us today through Paul is that Christ's believers

are to take up the full or every part of the armor of God so that we may be

able to resist and stand firm against the devil's attacks in the evil day.

The defensive parts of God's armor are, first off,

we are to get ready for action as we buckle on the belt of God's truth that

allows us to be truthful and honest so that nothing trips us up as we speak

and live out the Word of God in our world.

The second defensive armor piece is the breastplate of righteousness that we're

to put on so that we live with, by the Lord's strength, with God's righteousness.

The third defensive section of armor Paul described was that the disciple of

Christ is always prepared to share the gospel of God's peace.

The breastplate of faith stood for the living in the unity of faith with the

church and enabling Christ to work through us as we trust in Him.

The last defensive element of God's armor is the helmet of salvation with which

our minds are protected as we trust God that we are saved.

The main focus of this passage is that we are to be ready with the right armor

to defend ourselves for the attacks of Satan are coming.

I want to encourage you today that even though it feels like Satan is winning

the war in this world, as we look around and the mess that our country is in,

the mess that the world is in, there are wars and rumors of wars.

God is in control. Satan has already lost. It is over for him.

But there are still battles waging here amongst us that we cannot see or fully understand.

Every part of this armor coming down from God to us.

And as we surrender to Him, God's will will be accomplished in us and through us.

Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you, and He will fight on your behalf.

Let's pray. Oh, Father, we are so grateful for the wonderful chance to hear from Your Word.

Lord, help us to surrender to you and to live by and put on these armor pieces of faith,

of righteousness, of being constantly ready to share the gospel and all the others, Lord.

Lord, help us to live in the hope of your salvation, to trust you through all,

so that as we trust you, as we live by faith, you work through us.

You bring people to salvation through us. You operate us.

Oh, Lord, please operate us. And, Lord, I pray for those who are listening,

no matter where they are, may you, first of all, save them by your grace through

faith if they are not already saved.

But if they are may they

surrender to you may you operate them like

a vehicle operated by its operator may

you work your mighty and wondrous

power and will through them for your glory and your honor in your precious son's

name jesus christ i pray amen i'll leave you with this blessing from ephesians

Ephesians 3:20–21

chapter 3 verse 20 to 21 now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond

all that we can ask or understand,

according to the power that works within us.

To Him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus, to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Have a wonderful Sunday. May the Lord bless you all.