The Believer's Armor, Part 3: The Shoes of the Gospel of Peace

Now, he says the Christian needs to have shoes too. You can get out there, you know, and you can have your waist all cinched up. Boy, you're committed. And you can have your breastplate on and you have living a godly and righteous life as the Lord wishes.

But unless you can stand on your feet, you're going to fall over. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. How many battles throughout history have been lost because the enemy attacked at an unexpected time, or charged from a surprising direction, or had weapons that nobody knew about? Well, think about that in terms of the spiritual warfare you face. Understanding how your enemy fights is crucial if you're going to win, and better than the best military textbook the Bible gives you clear descriptions of how Satan attacks and the powerful tools of battle that God has given you. You'll see that today as John MacArthur continues his compelling study of the believer's armor. And with the lesson, here's John. There was a time in the life of Martin Luther when his conflict with Satan became so very real that it almost took on a physical manifestation with the result that in anger over Satan, Martin Luther picked up his inkwell and threw it at the devil.

It broke and splattered ink all over his wall, and the stain remained for many years, reminding many people of how vivid the conflict was in his own life. It is no less real in our lives, though we may not have the spiritual intensity of a Martin Luther to see it as such. The believer and Satan are in a mortal combat. Verse 12 of Ephesians 6 says we wrestle, and the verb is a term describing a life, death, hand to hand combat. You go back to the point in time in which you see Jesus enter the world, and Satan does everything he can to have Jesus Christ murdered by Herod. He does everything he can during the very life of Christ to have him killed, pushed off a cliff, crucified. Jesus conquers those efforts. You find that in the book of Acts as the church begins to carry the message of Jesus Christ, the devil resists them all along the way. Paul begins his missionary journeys to extend the gospel to the world, and he runs into magicians and sorcerers and demon-possessed people trying to thwart the effort. Peter on the day of Pentecost runs into hostility, and from there on persecution breaks out of that church.

The Sanhedrin are called to question these people and tell them to be silent, and all the way through the New Testament the gospel is withstood as it were by Satan. Finally when the church is born in terms of its roots and it has a foundation, it begins to march into the centuries of time that we know as the year of our Lord. The first three centuries are fraught with persecutions of the church, the death of Christians, the martyrdom of those who loved the Lord, and then we enter into the terror of the Dark Ages in which the whole testimony of the gospel becomes almost blotted out except for a few flickers of faithful groups who believed the truth all through that time. Finally in the time of the Reformation, the light dawns again and we hear the gospel ringing loud and clear as the birth of the Protestant church takes place. And then there's a war at that level between Romanism and the Protestant church. Finally we come to our own day and Protestantism is fairly well entrenched and the gospel is known and in comes the encroachment of modernism and of liberalism and of neo-orthodoxy and psychology and all of these other things.

They say nothing of the attacks of communism and humanism and materialism and hedonism and all of these others. So that we see from the very beginning all the way through a terrible battle between Satan and the gospel of Christ and it isn't just a battle of movements. It isn't just a battle of ideologies. It's a battle in the life of every individual as Satan assaults the work of God which he attempts to accomplish in the life of his children. So there's a war and that is why Paul closes Ephesians the way he does.

Sure we have resources in the first three chapters. Sure we know we are to walk a worthy walk in the next chapters, but there's going to be resistance and that's why he closes the way he does. Satan opposes everything God does. For example, Jesus reveals the truth. John 1.17 says he is full of grace and truth and Satan conceals it. In John 8.44 it says he's a liar and the father of lies.

So Jesus is revealing the truth and Satan is concealing it. On the other hand, the Bible tells us in John 5.24 that Jesus gives life. He says the father has given life to him and he gives life to whosoever he will. And Satan in John 8.44 is called a murderer.

He takes life. And in Hebrews 2.14 it says of him that he has the power of death. And so Jesus gives life and Satan takes life.

Jesus reveals truth and Satan conceals it. Jesus produces spiritual fruit. According to Galatians 5.22 Jesus produces in our lives love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self-control. And Satan produces fleshly fruit. And it's listed also in Galatians 5. The fruit of the flesh is this, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousy, wrath, factions, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, wild parties, etc. Jesus, the Bible says, tests us that we might be mature. James 1 says the trying of our faith makes us perfect. Whereas Satan tempts us to destroy us.

He goes about says Peter is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. So on the one hand you have Jesus revealing truth, Satan concealing it. Jesus producing life, Satan taking life. Jesus producing spiritual fruit, Satan producing vile and evil fleshly fruit.

Jesus testing us to make us mature and Satan devouring us to destroy. You have in John 8 this statement that if you know the Son, the Son shall make you free. You have in 2 Timothy 2, 26 the fact that Satan makes you a slave. In 1 John 2, 1 Jesus defends the believer. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. But in Revelation 12, 10 the devil accuses us.

So you have this tremendous conflict going on all the time between God and Satan in the life of a believer. Now how are we going to win? How are we going to know the victory? How do we get beyond our doubts? How do we rise above our sins?

How do we supersede our indifference? How do we attain the level of spiritual life that God calls us to? How do we walk worthy of a high calling, a heavenly calling? How do we defeat Satan?

How do we get the victory? Well, the Bible gives us solutions. In fact, the New Testament gives us several key answers.

And I want to run these by you. This is a little mini theology of how a believer deals with Satan. And by the way, this is what the Bible teaches as the way you deal with Satan in your own life. And this is as far as it goes. There are people today who want to advocate exorcisms and certain rituals and they have certain formulas for dealing with Satan, but this is what the Scripture says. I'm going to give you about five or six principles.

We're going to run right through them and give you a little sequence. Number one, first, in order to know victory over Satan, we must recognize that Christ has already dealt a defeating blow to Satan. Realize that Christ has already defeated him. In 1 John 3, 8 it says that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. In Hebrews 2, 14 it says He came to destroy him who had the power of death to whom we were all our lifetime subject to bondage. So know this, beloved, that the Lord has already dealt a defeating blow. Second thing, the New Testament says recognize that the power that dealt that blow resides in you. The power that defeated Satan is dwelling in you. In 1 John 4, it says in verse 4, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

When a believer is saved, he receives the Spirit of God. Implanted in him is the power that defeated Satan, the resource, the reservoir is there. Third thing, 1 Peter 5, verses 8 and 9 say this, be sober, that means know your priorities, be committed, be vigilant, watch, because your adversary of the devil like a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in faith.

Now note it. Principle number 1, recognize that Christ has already dealt a death defeating blow to Satan. Principle number 2, recognize that that Satan defeating power indwells you by the Spirit of God, that's your resource. Number 3, resist Satan. Resist him.

And you can because you have that available power. Now you say, well John, how do you resist him? As Peter says, well let's look at Ephesians 4.27, that'll give us another concept. Ephesians 4.27 tells us how we resist Satan expressing his power in our lives. Ephesians 4.27 simply says this, neither give a place to the devil. Just don't ever give him a place.

It's pretty simple. Don't give him a place. Now the implication of the verse is that if he has a place, it's because you gave it to him, right? So that your will is the key.

Now note, let's go back again. Start out by recognizing that the death blow has already been dealt. Then move on secondly to the fact that the death dealing power is resident in you. Be alert then to resist his efforts.

What does that mean? It means give no place to Satan in your life. You say, all right, how do I keep from doing that? How do I keep from giving no place to him? How do I keep from, as 2 Corinthians 2.11 says, giving him an advantage? The answer is this, 2 Corinthians 2.11, be not ignorant of his devices.

All right, if you want to not give him a place, then be aware of where he's coming from. Bar the door. Close the windows.

Bolt the locks. Make sure you are not ignorant of his devices. You say, well, what are his devices? 1 John says this, for all, that's right, the word all, all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of God but is of the world. How does Satan come to you? The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.

That's his device. So if you're not ignorant there, you bar the door at the lust of the eyes, you bar the door at the lust of the flesh, you bar the door at the pride of life, you will give no place to Satan. Having given no place to Satan, you will resist his entry into your life. There's another thought. If you're not going to give a place to the devil, that means you have to be aware of his devices.

You can't be ignorant. And secondly, when you see him coming, flee. Second Timothy 2 22 says, flee youthful lusts. Flee temptation and follow after righteousness it said.

Now that's a pretty simple formula, people. Let me say it again so you'll get it. Realize the death dealing blow has already been dealt by the power of Christ. Realize that power resides in your life. Therefore, resist the devil, which means give no place in your life to him. You do that, number one, by not being ignorant of his devices and two, when they come, by fleeing from them.

You say, well John, how do you get yourself oriented to do this? That's 2 Corinthians 10 3. 2 Corinthians 10 3. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. What Paul is saying is we are human beings, but our battle is not a human battle. We are physical creatures, but our battle is not a physical battle. Verse 4 of 2 Corinthians 10, for the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly. No, we're not fighting a human battle. Men are not really the enemy.

The battle is not really on a human level, a fleshly level. Our weapons are not simply fleshly, but are mighty through God. In other words, we have a spiritual warfare demanding spiritual weapons. Now how are we going to use these weapons? How are we going to know we can be aware of his devices and that we can flee his temptations and we can resist his onslaughts and we can be sure to give no place to him in our lives?

How are we going to appropriate the power? The end of verse 5 simply says, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Now listen, that's the final note in our little brief theology. In order for us to know Christ has dealt a death blow to Satan, in order for us to know that that same power resides in us, in order for us to resist Satan, to give no place to his entry, to not be ignorant of his devices, to flee his temptations, we must have every thought brought into captivity to Christ. In other words, we must have our mind controlled by the Word of God through the power of the Spirit of God. There are no shortcuts, beloved, to effective victorious Christian living. If you're going to live a victorious Christian life, it means you must have a mind given over to the Word of God so that your thinking and your feeling is controlled by that very truth. Now, that's the New Testament formula in a theological framework just taken from various passages, but let me go another step. All of that is beautifully and wonderfully summarized in one passage. It's right in front of you and it's Ephesians chapter 6 verses 13-17. All of those principles that I've just given you in one way or another are latent in this passage.

They're all here. They're all available and beautifully put together in this one masterpiece on how a believer wins the war against the forces of hell. And remember, beloved, there's a real war and there's a real victory available on a day-to-day basis. I want you to see the feet shod with the gospel of peace. This is tremendous.

Oh, what a great, marvelous concept this verse 50. And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Now it comes to the soldiers' shoes. Shoes have become a major part of our culture. Originally, shoes were used to protect feet.

Now they've become a fashion item. Frankly, we don't need that much protection for our feet. Our cars are carpeted. Our streets have nice pavement and our churches are carpeted and our offices are carpeted and the places that aren't carpeted have fairly clean floors. For the most part, we aren't wandering over rough stone and wading through mud and tramping in dust or trying to stroll across thorny bushes and so forth. We have pretty well paved and carpeted our world and shoes have become primarily a fashion item.

So we might not necessarily get the picture as clearly as we should unless we understand how terrible the terrain was, how piercing the thorns and items lying on the ground could be, how hard it would be to walk over the cobbles and the rocks and pebbles and everything else in those parts of the world. Maybe we could get a little idea because we see today a special need for shoes if we're hiking or tramping across the desert or walking on a hot pavement or whatever and this is the reason in those days for shoes. Today also we have shoes for every conceivable kind of sport and it's always amazing to me how everyone serves a function. If you're participating on a sport on concrete, you have a certain kind of shoe. If you're going to be on dirt, it's another kind of shoe.

I notice that even for tennis, depending upon whatever kind of surface you're playing on, some grass courts at Wimbledon, some clay courts, some concrete courts, some of those rubberized ones all have different soles and they've got certain kind of shoes for wood floors and other kind of shoes for other floors. I remember one time in college we were playing football and we were playing over in the Rose Bowl and it had rained for a couple of weeks before the game and it was really pretty bad and of course when the field gets a lot of play, it's toward the end of the season, the grass is primarily gone and then it rains and it just becomes problematic and what they do is they run a little cart across it and paint it green so it looks grassy but there really isn't much grass and it looked pretty good to us and we didn't really know how it'd be so I had two pair of shoes in football, one with long spikes for a bad turf and one with short ones and I figured it'd be all right. The long ones were kind of heavy and I didn't like that so I took my little short ones and they were wrong and I had inadequate shoes and I really didn't discover it until the kickoff and I was back deep on the four-yard line to take the opening kickoff and return it and the ball came down out of the air and I gathered it in and took about two steps and landed on my southern hemisphere in front of the whole world and sat there with the ball gently cradled in my lap while 21 people stared down at me, none of whom had even touched me. I fell all alone and sat there on the six-yard line while we started together as a team from deep in our own territory and I realized, you know, I should have had my other shoes and I even tried on the sidelines to get somebody who didn't play as frequently as I did to swap but I couldn't get any takers so I slipped and slid all over the field.

We have reasons for the things that we have. The shoes provide a certain function and this is especially true in war. If it would be important in athletics, you can imagine how important it would be if you're fighting for your life and a Roman soldier wouldn't get out in a battle with just a normal leather shoe with a slick bottom.

He'd be slipping and sliding all over every place. He'd be trying to climb a rock to fight a guy and he'd be slipping down the rock and so they had to have a special shoe and it was very important because in battle this would save your life very possibly. Also, they had to have the kind of a shoe that would last for long marches because they would cover tremendous amounts of terrain.

You'll remember reading about the Roman army. You'll remember reading about Caesar's long marches and many wars have been lost because soldiers didn't have adequate shoes. You've even read about times in the American Revolutionary War when you see the soldiers under General Washington with their feet being wrapped because they could no longer have shoes.

They were so worn out. There have been other points in human history where battles have been lost because they couldn't protect the feet of the soldiers from being frozen or injured or wounded. Also, in the time of the Roman wars, there was a common custom. Today we have minefields to trap approaching armies. In those days, knowing that an army was coming behind a certain army, they would plant in the grounds sticks sharpened razor to a razor point facing toward the army hoping to pierce the feet of the advancing soldiers. And so in order to protect themselves, the Roman soldiers would wear a boot that had a heavy sole so that it couldn't be pierced because if their feet were pierced they couldn't walk and that could debilitate the entire soldier. You know, he could be the best soldier there was. He could have the greatest strength and all of that, but if his feet were hurt, the bottom of his feet, he's finished.

It's amazing. You can hurt your arm, your hands, your elbows, your shoulders, and still you can keep moving and function. You hurt your feet and you're really debilitated. And so they would try to pierce their feet. Also in the battle, you may be the strongest man alive.

You may have the greatest sword there is, but if you can't stand up, you're in real trouble. And so there was such an importance of footwear and here's what they used. They used a thick-soled hobnail semi-boot that came around like this on their foot and then had straps that tied it in all directions so that it was tremendously tight and adhering to their foot. On the bottom they had hobnails, little pieces of metal that protruded from the bottom like a football or a track shoe or a baseball shoe to give them a grip on the soil. This gave them firmness of footing so they could stand in the battle. And that's what Paul sees. He sees this Roman soldier standing and his feet are firm and he's able to hold his ground and make quick moves and keep his feet.

He doesn't slip and he doesn't slide and he doesn't fall. Now he says the Christian needs to have shoes too. You can get out there, you know, and you can have your waist all cinched up. Boy, you're committed. And you can have your breastplate on and you have living a godly and righteous life as the Lord wishes. But unless you can stand on your feet, you're going to fall over.

And so you must have a solid base. That's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. His current study on Grace to You is looking at Ephesians chapter 6 and the believer's armor. Now John, you'll remember I'm sure that a couple of decades ago it was very popular to have these novels about spiritual warfare that planted a lot of wrong ideas in people's minds about what the weapons are that we should use against the devil and how to wage spiritual warfare.

There are lots of wrong ideas still floating around about that. It's important to understand what Scripture says about how to face the enemy. Yeah, those were those ubiquitous books on the darkness and piercing the darkness.

And it had Christians engaging directly with demons. And I think we ought to know that that's not what Christians are to do. You remember the sons of Sceva tried to deal directly with demons in the book of Acts and the demons said, Jesus, we know, and Paul, we know, but who are you guys? We understand apostolic authority and we understand the authority of the Son of God, but who do you think you are?

You have no power to command us. But that was extremely popular, to think you could literally command demons because you were a Christian. Well, there's nothing in the Scripture that indicates that, nor do you want to assume that that's how you deal with Satan in your own life, by chasing demons. Spiritual warfare, I think, is most carefully defined in 2 Corinthians 10 where it's described as using the truth to smash any ungodly idea. Spiritual warfare is really a battle for the mind to bring the truth to people who are in bondage to lies.

And in the process of bringing that truth, we're going to have to fight some battles with temptation along the way as Satan has infested the world with lots of things to tempt us. That and other elements of spiritual warfare are contained in a book that I've written called Standing Strong. This is a book that digs down a little bit into this unseen battle that every believer is engaged in.

We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and the rulers of darkness because they operate in the world system of which we are a part. So you need to know how Satan operates and how he comes at you and what your responsibility is and what your defenses are and how you can be triumphant. This is a very important book. Standing Strong is the title.

You'll refer to it again and again. You'll find it useful in a Bible study or daily devotions. If you've never contacted our ministry before, we'll send you a copy of Standing Strong free as our get-acquainted gift. Contact us today.

Yes, this book shows you from Scripture what Satan can and cannot do and how you can resist him. To get a copy of Standing Strong free if it's your first time contacting us, get in touch with us today. Our number is 855-GRACE or go to gty.org.

The title, again, to ask for Standing Strong. We'll send you a free copy of this helpful, full-length book if you've never contacted us before. Just call 855-GRACE or go to gty.org. And if you're benefitting from the teaching you hear on Grace To You, let me encourage you to contact the staff of this radio station and let them know. We'll make a point of asking you to do that from time to time.

It really is important, more than you probably know. So again, if you appreciate hearing Grace To You on the radio, give this station a call or send them an email and thank them for making our verse-by-verse teaching available in your area. And to let us know how God is using these programs in your life, we also love hearing from you, send a note to letters at gty.org or use regular mail. Our address is Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. Now for John MacArthur and the Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson inviting you back tomorrow for another half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.