As Christians we are told plainly that we must put on the whole armor of God. Half of the armor of God won't do. And putting on the whole armor of good works, the whole armor of self, or the whole armor of good intentions won't do either. Why do we need to wear the whole armor of God?
Know this, there is a battle raging right now. We see it in the halls of government, in the classrooms of great universities, in the New York Stock Exchange, in who controls the vast majority of the media, and in the unscrupulous leaders and members of the church. If we join Joshua in saying, "Choose you this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord," then we are in the midst of a battle.
So, If I'm in a battle, who is my enemy? It's not a person; it's the Devil and his spiritual helpers. A person only becomes our enemy when they are actively serving the Devil's agenda, and even then we always hold out hope that the salvation of our Lord will be known to any human being. Right now we are in the midst of spiritual warfare, and there's a lot of people who are on the Devil's side, but as God's Word says in Ephesians 6:12, "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." We must realize:
The Devil and his spiritual cohorts are out to destroy our Christian life. (verses 11-12)
When you decided to be on God's team you gained yourself an enemy in the Devil. If you sit on the sidelines and do nothing, you might not know you are in a battle, but the minute you step up to bat or go out for the pass, you will definitely know that you are in the midst of a battle. According to a recent survey only 35% of Americans believe that Satan exists, while 60% think Satan is only a symbol ("Onward Christian Soldiers", Rev. Alex Stevenson, 8/24/97) Do you believe in the Devil? Do you comprehend that you are in a battle today?
We need to be able to stand strong in these evil days. (verses 10-11, 13)
If you think it's easy to stand strong as a Christian today, then your standards are too low. God doesn't want our spirits to be shut-in, He doesn't want our spirits to be crippled, He wants us to live a faithful life in the midst of a perverse generation. As Peter said we are called to be a "peculiar people".
Here's some of the battles Christians face in life.
What's your struggle! Understand what I'm saying. If you don't have a struggle, then you are not actively serving the Lord. And if you don't have hope to overcome all temptation then you are not putting on the whole armor of God. There's a lot of God's children who have fallen down, and the sad thing is they don't care. When are we going to learn that God's grace is big enough to overcome our sin. If we fall down, we ask for someone stronger (God's the only truly strong one in the world) to help us up. It's only when we stay down, that we are truly dead.
So we are left with this realization. In order to defeat the Devil's influence over us and to stand strong in this world that devours weak Christians, we must put on the whole armor of God. Paul describes the armor like this.
What stands our as unique about this armor?
A. It's specifically defensive in nature. Someone has said that the best offense is a good defense. All the armor except the sword are for defending one's self and not for attacking. Some would say this shows the passive nature of the Christian life.
It is the unity of truth, righteousness, preparation, faith, salvation, the Word of God, and prayer that gives us the spiritual strength to survive the warfare we are engaged in today.
B. Another point about this armor, is it is God's promise to give us Himself. Why is it called the armor of God? Because God's character is written all over it. It belongs to God, and the armor is the very presence of God himself. Truth, righteousness, preparation of the Gospel, faith, salvation, the Word of God, and true prayer are found in a relationship with God alone.
So when it says put on the whole armor of God, it says get all there is of God. If you don't have God completely than you are in trouble in these evil days.
Each one of us needs to receive all there is of God. The word for it in this church is sanctification. And I want to challenge you not to leave here without it. Many people have tried to understand sanctification, but Paul makes it clear what it means in this letter to the Ephesians. Sanctification is putting on the whole armor of God. Sanctification comes when God moves in your heart to really understand that without the whole armor of God you and I are destined to fail in battle and continually disappoint the Lord. If you want to be a knight in God's court, you must be sanctified.
We are in a battle, but as we depend upon the whole armor of God we will make it church.