If you would turn with me please to Paul's letter to the Ephesians. We're continuing our journey through this last chapter of Ephesians, chapter 6.
And just for context, it's been a while since we were together in this. Let me begin reading at verse 10 and read this section that contains our text for tonight. Ephesians 6 beginning at verse 10. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. Let's pray together. Father, the truth of the gospel is that it is your power unto salvation to everyone who believes. And yet, we acknowledge and confess that so often we are fearful and timid, and lack that boldness for which Paul asked the Ephesians to pray. Grant us grace to obediently declare and proclaim the truth of the gospel of peace, to live by it and to point others to it, that Christ would be glorified and exalted. We ask this in his name.
Amen. We are looking tonight particularly at verse 15 that speaks of having the shoes on our feet that are the preparation, the readiness, the gospel of peace. You know, soldiers work hard to take care of the feet in combat. It's important that they be able to stand fast and to move and to have security in their ability to stand. And they give attention to the footwear. I remember my years in the National Guard and the care with which we regarded our boots, those combat boots. And you know, it's interesting that the Army has worked to design those boots according to the environment the soldiers are going to be working in, whether it be the Arctic cold or the desert sands or the rice paddies or the rainforest jungles. Those footwear are designed to protect and to take care of the feet of the soldiers because that's their means of standing and moving.
In Paul's day, when he speaks of the shoes, he's speaking of sandals. And these sandals were provided to give another advantage in battle and that is this matter of mobility and speed. From ancient times up to the present day, mobility and speed of movement have been vital for military success. When you look at the conqueror of the known world, Alexander the Great, one of his great advantages was his ability to move his armies quickly and to surprise attack because of the mobility and the speed with which he was able to move around. And as a result, he was able to conquer the known world of the time. The need for mobility in battle has been in continuous change from early times until our own day.
There's constant change and innovation. One American general has talked about the modern ability to reach literally around the world. He said, In the future battlefield, if you stay in one place longer than two or three hours, you will be dead.
With enemy drones and sensors constantly on the hunt for targets, there won't even be time for four hours unbroken sleep. Even in our modern context, we still speak of combat though in terms of boots on the ground. There's something essential and fundamental about the foot soldier when it comes to warfare. And this was even more so true in Paul's day. Paul probably had in mind the image of a Roman soldier as he wrote to the Ephesians about spiritual warfare.
We'll look a little more closely at this in a moment, but the apostle may also have had in mind Old Testament prophecy. In Isaiah's prophecy in chapter 52 verse 7, he says, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation. That imagery of the feet of one who's bringing good news, and Paul speaks here of us having on our feet shoes that are preparation and readiness given by the gospel of peace.
Regardless of the imagery that was in mind here, there are some real lessons that can be learned from this with regard to our involvement in spiritual warfare in our daily lives. As we dive into this, I want to look first at some of the key terms in this verse. Paul says shoes for your feet. King James says being shod with this preparation of the gospel of peace.
The word that is used here speaks of a kind of sandal, a piece of wood or bark that was held under the feet with leather straps. If Paul was thinking about the image of a Roman soldier, he would have had in mind their special sandals that had hobnails on the bottom to give them security in their step and their ability to stand fast in battle. But this picture here of sure-footedness reminds us that in spiritual warfare, a Christian needs to be sure-footed. He needs to be able to stand his ground and stand firm on the truth of the gospel. Earlier in his letter, Paul had written of the maturity that's needed to stand in the battle in chapter 4 verse 13 and 14, he said, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine. If you've ever tried to stand in the surf of the Atlantic Ocean like I have, you know what waves can do to you, tossing you to and fro.
It's very difficult, you know what it means to be tossed to and fro by the waves. In order to stand firm against the waves and winds of doctrine, we need the preparation that Paul is talking about here, that he's encouraging this preparation readiness of the gospel of peace. Talking about preparation and readiness reminds me of the scout motto, be prepared. We need to make ready for the battle, to be prepared, to put on the shoes beforehand.
It reminds me of the old westerns, the cowboys would sleep in their boots. They were ready to go, ready to move, and we need to have that sense of readiness and preparation, the readiness of the gospel of peace. Peter also wrote about this need for preparedness in 1 Peter chapter 3. He says, have no fear, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. So Paul says we are to be having our feet shod with the preparation of the readiness of the gospel of peace. The gospel of peace. The word gospel, as you know, equals good news.
It's good news. Man by nature is spiritually dead. He doesn't even know that he's in danger.
He doesn't recognize the fact that he needs to be rescued. He's at enmity with God, he's at war with God, and deserves the wrath of God. The good news of the gospel is that in Christ it can be rescued from the wrath to come. For those who have been regenerated by God, we who know and understand what God has done in Christ, we know this good news of the gospel and we know it's peace.
We have peace with God, we have peace in ourselves, we have peace with others because of what Christ has accomplished. And so understanding what Paul is telling us, we need to consider briefly now how this particular part of the armor is to be wielded. And we can look for illustration of that in what we see in the New Testament in the scriptures. You go back to the book of Acts, the Acts of the Apostles it's called, and the apostles were sent and empowered to proclaim this gospel. Chapter 1 verse 8, our Lord just before his ascension says to the disciples, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. They were prepared and ready to proclaim because they had been with Jesus for three years. During his public ministry they had walked with him, they had heard him teach, they had seen him work. And they knew his miracles, they had heard his teaching, they were witnesses of the resurrection.
They were filled with the Holy Spirit. And we read there in chapter 2 of Acts that after being filled with the Spirit they began to speak and Peter stood up and said to them, We repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The apostles preached Jesus Christ. Later in chapter 4 of Acts, Peter again is speaking, This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Paul also was an apostle and as he put it was born out of time. We were reminded this morning of how Paul, though he did not walk with Jesus as the other apostles did, had that revelation, Jesus revealed himself to him and so Paul also was prepared by the Lord himself. Listen to his testimony in Galatians chapter 1, we read this this morning, But when he who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his Son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. There Paul proclaimed Jesus.
We're told in Acts chapter 9 that he was there with the disciples in Damascus for some days and says he immediately proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues saying he is the Son of God. Paul kept to the unique gospel of Jesus Christ and in fact when he was writing to the Corinthians he said, I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. In his letter to the Galatians which we have been looking at the last couple of Sundays he said in verse 8 of chapter 1, Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. Paul saw the gospel of Jesus Christ as what it truly is, the way, the only way of salvation. And he saw his own life in the preaching of that gospel as being a soldier, being in a fight, being in a war. In writing to Timothy toward the end of his life he said, I have fought the good fight.
In fact five times in Paul's epistles he uses the word soldier, a good soldier, a fellow soldier. He's constantly looking at this declaration of the gospel as being in a battle, in a war. And he preaches this singular message, the gospel of Jesus Christ and that was what he fought for. And throughout the history of the church, the church has had to fight for the truth of the gospel and the uniqueness of the gospel. From the very beginning the church has had to fight heresy. Even before the New Testament canon was complete, the Gnostics and the Judaizers had to be confronted. And for decades and even centuries the church wrestled with questions of the nature of who Jesus is and the relation between the Son, God the Son and God the Father. In our day the war against the true gospel continues. It has raged throughout the history of the church and today is no different. This continuing battle is something that we have to face in our day. And one of the great questions of our day is what did Jesus actually accomplish on the cross?
Did he actually accomplish salvation of sinners or did he just make it possible? One of the big questions it continues to raise. Across the centuries every generation of believers has been faced with a battle for the truth of the gospel, who Jesus is and how his death saves sinners. In our own time the war against the truth has developed largely as a result of the sexual revolution of the 1960's.
And we've come to the point where the mind of man has been given over to debauchery and we face problems of abortion and no fault divorce and questioning the nature of marriage and family, of homosexuality, transgenderism and polyamory. And it goes on just the many ways that man has attempted to distort and destroy the truth of God's Word. There are all the cults that we face in our day. We have Jehovah's Witnesses and so-called Christian Science and Mormonism that bears the name the Church of Jesus Christ but has denied the truth of who Jesus is as the second person of the Trinity. There are the mega congregations and even mainline denominations that claim to be Christian and yet they have denied the authority of God's Word. We've recently been made aware of things like the unhinged movement that just dismisses the Old Testament. There's the health and wealth gospel that focuses on the material and temporal values.
The false prophets for whom God is not an immutable God but a God who is evolving, not one who has declared the end from the beginning but who is uncertain about the future. We could speak at length about the distortions and the false teachings that face us in the church today but let's just leave that there and let's focus on the truth that we know and it has been revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Let's look at the application of this armor that God has given us. If we are to stand firm in the battle, we have to have our feet shod with the preparation, the readiness of the gospel of peace. We have to know what the gospel is. We have to believe the gospel. We have to live the gospel and declare it to others. So what is this message?
We all know we need to remind ourselves. In fact, many have said that we need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day. The gospel is not just for the salvation, it's for sanctification and ultimately our glorification and we need to be constantly keeping it before us.
So what is that message? First of all, we need to know and declare with certainty the truth of who God is. God is holy, absolutely holy, too holy even to look upon sin. God is holy. He is unchanging, immutable, sovereign ruler of all. A sovereign ruler who is intimately involved in the very details of his universe so much so that the very hairs of our head are numbered.
Not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from his sovereign rule. He's creator of all. One of the great attacks on the truth in our day is, of course, the idea that God is not creator. There's no God who has created everything. God is a creator. And while we know that God is a God of love and mercy, he is also absolutely holy and just and his standard, his requirement is perfection, absolute obedience.
Nobody ever measures up to that. We cannot. We are spiritually dead because of the fall into sin and we worship ourselves and we're destined for hell and we can never atone for a single sin. We can never appease the wrath of God in ourselves. The truth is that we stand before a holy God condemned to death and an eternity of separation from him apart from what God has done in Jesus Christ. But that's the good news that Christ is the way to life, to regeneration, to being made alive.
His spirit gives life and opens eyes. And in Christ, we are accepted as children of God, adopted into the family, elected by him to be with him for all eternity. Christ is the way, not a way, the way, the only way. And that is the truth of the gospel and that is the good news that is given to us in Jesus Christ. And the wonderful thing about it is that it is all by grace. We can never earn it.
We don't deserve it. We have no merit apart from what Christ has done. It is all by grace, grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And God alone gets the glory and the glory of that.
And so we know the good news. We know what the gospel is, this gospel of peace. And so we must preserve and proclaim this gospel of peace. So how do we do that?
What is our method? We know what the message is, but we have to declare it. I think Scripture has a very wonderful method for us in a very simple phrase, speak the truth in love, speak the truth in love.
So many times we are tempted to speak truth into situations and we do it in judgmentalism and harshness and with a critical spirit. We are to speak the truth in love. God is a God who speaks and when he speaks, things happen.
He spoke and the universe was there. God speaks and he has chosen to work through spoken word. We are to speak and to declare and to proclaim the truth and to do it in love. He has chosen to use the speaking of his children to bring the gospel to the world.
And that gospel is the gospel of peace. It brings peace between sinners and a holy God. It brings peace within the fragmented, disjointed, messed up mind and heart of fallen men and women.
It brings peace between members of the body who are able to come together even in disagreement and work through those times in love and with kindness and forgiveness. So God has chosen for us to speak the truth of the gospel. We are to preach the word and to teach what is commanded. Jesus said to his disciples, go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them everything that I've commanded you, teach them. Do it in love and humility, with compassion, kindness, imitating our Lord who is gentle and lowly in heart. We go to the world to proclaim the truth of the gospel of peace, not in pride, not because we are nothing apart from Christ, but we go in compassion and pity on those who have yet to hear and who have not known the revelation by which we come to see the truth of the gospel. So put on the shoes and be ready to go where we have the true gospel, the gospel of peace in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let's pray. Father God, you are gracious and kind, merciful and loving, and yet you are just and holy. You will not overlook our sin, but you have dealt with our sin in Jesus Christ, and because of that, we have the certain hope that one day we will stand in your presence, not in fear, but with great joy. You are able to keep us and to preserve us. Father, in the joy of knowing that, may we be faithful and obedient to declare that truth to the world around us. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
