Strong Armor for Weak Sheep, Part 2

In difficult seasons of adversity, it's tempting to slip into victim mode.

After all, it seems so unfair to lose a job or to suffer through an illness. Well, even while muddling our way through unexpected hardships, God has equipped every believer with protective gear. And donning this spiritual armor, we're no longer weak and defenseless sheep, but rather much more like roaring lions. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll teaches from Ephesians chapter 6. In this passage, Paul describes how to get ready for the battles ahead.

Chuck titled today's message, Strong Armor for Weak Sheep. Can we bow together for a few moments of quietness and stillness together? We are reminded, our Father, of the truth of the Psalmist who wrote, We are not only strangers to one another more often than not, we're strangers to silence. Our lives are so busy we hate missing one panel of a revolving door. Our to-do list is always more than we can accomplish. Our responsibilities are greater than we are adequate to fulfill them. And so, our Father, we confess to you that it is easy to live our lives frustrated, preoccupied with what hasn't gotten done, too busy, too noisy. And therefore, we worship our work and we play at our worship.

We've got this all backwards. There's nothing like a Sunday marked by rain and clouds and an opportunity to come inside out of the weather to be reminded that what still pleases you is stillness. In quietness and confidence, the prophet wrote, you will find strength. And therefore, I pray as a shepherd of this flock that you will teach us how to be still, how to rest. Even in a busy day, how to know what it is to have a rest of soul and a peace of mind. Even in the accomplishments of the hour, teach us the value of moment by moment stillness and restfulness. In a few moments, Lord, we will participate in a time of offering, and it will be an occasion for us to be joyful in our hearts as we reflect on the blessings that have been ours in abundance. How rich we are, how well cared for, overnourished, overfed, overindulged, living in abundance. It's good for us to be quiet and to go back to the things that matter and to remember when we had little.

And you were all we had and all we knew. May we in these moments be still and discover again how great our God is. In Christ's name, we ask this. Amen. You're listening to Insight for Living.

To search the scriptures with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. And now let's resume the message titled Strong Armor for Weak Sheep. We can't fight. We don't run very fast.

We can't roar until we have on his armor and then lambs roar because we are going in the strength of his might. We're not adequate. We don't get any credit for the win. It isn't our victory.

We are more than conquerors. You just read it through him who loved us. That's why when you turn to Ephesians 6 and you get to verse 10, he says what he does. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of your own lamb-like legs. No, that is not what it says, in the strength of his might. Verse 11, put on your own wool.

No, that's not what it says. Put on the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Why, our struggle is not against flesh and blood. You'd never see the enemy. So not only are we lambs who are defenseless, can't even roar, not only do we have no strength in ourselves, we can't even see the enemy. So it stands to reason that when he mentions armor, it's armor that can't be seen.

Right? That's what's there. See, we are so enamored of physical appearance, image, strength that when we get to a warfare subject, if we're not careful, we will think only in terms of physical strength. This isn't about physical strength.

This is the inverted picture. It's the strength within all of us lambs. It's armor that is within. And he happens to use a soldier in Rome as a model for his word picture.

But it's only word pictures. These are allegories. These are analogies that illustrate the invisible. Let me show you why he uses an armor or a Roman soldier as an example of the armor. Look at verse 20. End of the chapter. Ephesians 6 and verse 20. I am an ambassador in chains.

You know what? He really was. The Apostle Paul, according to the last few verses of the book of Acts, spent two years, count them, two years under house arrest with a Roman soldier chained or locked to him.

We would call him handcuffed, we would say today. For two solid years, he had a chance to look at this soldier, part of the crack troops of Caesar's best, right there in the heart of Rome, standing guard over Paul during this arrest. He saw his helmet, he saw his breastplate, he studied his belt, he saw the leggings, he saw the boots, he saw the shield over there, he saw the sword that was never that far away from a Roman soldier, and these became perfect word pictures for an invisible battle.

But don't get so caught up in the image that you miss the representation of the image. That's verse 13, for example. Take up the full armor of God. This is not Rome's armor. This is not a soldier's armor, though those are the word pictures. Take up the full armor of God.

Why? So you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything else, stand. That's what sheep do.

Stand. Shout till you're blue in the face, and you will never impact a demon. Swing a sword all across the room or whatever territory you're in, whether it's day or night, and you will never slice a demon. You will never touch a demon with a shield, a literal shield, or be protected from a demon with a literal helmet. These are all images that represent things that make the demon back off.

Cause Satan to stand off. Look at the passage. It has to do with truth. Righteousness, verse 14. Peace, 15. Faith, 16. Salvation, 17. The word of God, 17. That is what is important, and it isn't even the printed word of God. It is the saying. We'll get to that in a moment.

Let's look at these six. Get your pen handy. I want you to mark your Bible. I want you to circle the word truth, verse 14.

Your loins gird with truth. Circle that. Circle the last word in the verse. Righteousness.

Put that on. Circle the last word of verse 15. Peace. Mark that. Faith, verse 16.

Circle that. Salvation, 17. And the word, 17. The end of verse 17. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, the word. Weak, defenseless sheep roar when they wear this kind of armor because the strength is coming from the Lord. We go in the strength of His might. We stand against the enemy in the equipment God has provided. Truth is first. I like that. The belt of truth. Stand firm, verse 14. Having wrapped yourself around with the belt of truth.

I'm going to pause and let you picture it in your mind. The Roman soldier didn't wear a decorative belt. Most of us wear belts that we kind of take or leave.

They're not that significant. For the soldier, it was often a belt of mail. It was wrapped around and kept his toga. The flowing garment that went over his undergarment, it kept it from flying all around and getting caught here or snagged there. And the belt wrapped it all around and held it all close.

Kept him in a fighting readiness. This is truth. Forget belt now.

Forget the belt. Except it's what wraps itself around the believer. And it's not the truth.

A little technical insight here. The definite article isn't here or in the original. It's truth. Truthfulness. It's living truth, telling truth, representing truth. It's the absence of duplicity, hypocrisy.

It speaks of an authentic life and lifestyle. Nothing is hidden that is shameful when you are girded with truth. If you are going to do battle with the enemy on enemy ground and in enemy terms, you are going to have to be a person who lives in and models truth.

Unfortunately, you will not have many models around you to follow. How many of us have gone through the disheartening experience of having the feet of clay of our models fall and appear before them, if not during, after their death and the skeletons rattled out of the closet because they live lives of duplicity? They were saying one thing, but they were really living another. This is the opposite. This is girding yourself with truthfulness. Truth is hard to find even in high places, may I say it, especially in high places. We've gotten to where we yawn through it because that's the way we are. We get around it by saying no one's perfect.

Stop! It isn't about perfection. It is about authenticity. It isn't about being perfect. No one expects anyone to be perfect. We simply expect them to say, I have lied, if they've lied. We expect them to say, I am not what you think I am. There are some things you need to know.

That's fine. We need to know them. We're living in a day when words are no longer meaningful. Someone has put it this way. We have institutionalized deceit. Isn't that a good way to put it?

I saw this the other day. Taxes are no longer taxes. They are revenue assessment enhancements.

Truth says they're taxes. Moral perversion is now gay. A great English word has been soiled by perversion. So that you don't say homosexual, you certainly don't say sodomizer, you say gay.

And in doing so, we don't face the truth. Murder of the unborn is now freedom of choice. It's never murder.

Don't use that word. We're not even sure if it's a being, if it's not yet born. Marxism in the church is liberation theology. This keeps us from living in truth, men and women. The Nazis never called it a death camp or an extermination center. It was always the final solution. It was the ultimate solution.

No, you murder people in gas chambers. That's what it is. You see, what have I got to lose? Man, when you're my age, you can say it. If I were in my 30s, I probably wouldn't preach like this, but I left that about four, three decades ago. Listen to me. Teach your children truth. Teach them truth. Stay with truth. Stay with truth. Don't let them hedge on truth, and you will equip them to handle the enemy. But if you take the edge off truth, you will before you know it begin to think politically correct. You'll begin to think tactfully, a little more cautiously. We're dealing with the mind, men and women.

We're dealing with where the enemy comes in and makes his inroad and sets in his rut. Teach your children truth, and teach yourself if you have left its walls, come back to it. You will never regret it, and you will wear the belt. You will gird your loins with it when the enemy comes with his subtle rewording of information.

You will see it as what it really is, and you'll call it that. The belt is followed by the breastplate, having put on the breastplate of righteousness. Breastplate, hmm. I've never seen a first century breastplate. I've seen a Bible dictionary's picture of a first century breastplate, and I think the author did his research and probably is a good example, but I've never seen one.

I've seen ancient breastplates in museums where I've been, and you've seen them. As best I can rebuild the breastplate, it covered the upper torso. It was either strapped in the front or in the back, and it did, in fact, cover the back. I used to teach this passage that said there's no armor for the back. I wish I could recall those tapes, because there is armor for the back. The breastplate reached around and included the back.

The soldier sometimes had to turn, and the enemy sometimes took his shot with his arrow or spear from the person's backside. You've got to have protection in the chest area and the upper torso. That's where the vital organs are. Anyone who hunts is taught to shoot just behind the shoulder of the animal, because that's where the heart is. That's where the vital organs are, the lungs, and you'll bring down the animal at that point.

The human is the same. Hit us in the chest, and we're finished. This is the core of our emotion, called the heart in the scriptures, and we are told that we are righteous, put on the breastplate of righteousness. This is a full-on coverage of the righteousness of Christ. Put it on. Remember it.

Take it in. Live in the truth of it. In our emotional world where everything is touchy-feely, we don't sometimes feel very righteous. We don't sometimes look very righteous. We're to put on the righteousness that is ours. You know, when it started, it started its salvation. The definition of justification is the sovereign act of God, whereby he declares righteous the believing sinner while we are still in a sinning state.

Say it again. The sovereign act of God, whereby he declares righteous the believing sinner while we're still in a sinning state. Every believer hearing my voice at this moment is justified. You have been declared righteous. Put it on.

Put it on. You don't have to somehow plead for an opportunity to be accepted by God as his child. You are his. You have his righteousness because you have Christ. Louis Sperry Chafer put it in these words. Nearer still nearer, nearer I cannot be, for in the person of his Son I am as near as he. To paraphrase, righteous still righteous, righteous I cannot be, but in the person of his Son I am as righteous as he. That's why salvation is essential, men and women. You can't be protected if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ. It's impossible for you to put on any of this armor because part of it is righteousness, and when you stand in the righteousness of Christ, the enemy knows he is defeated. He cannot get in if he knows that you're emotionally stable standing in the righteousness of Christ, and the breastplate will equip you with that assurance, the righteousness of Christ.

Third is the boot. Verse 15, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Before we get to the preparation of the gospel of peace, look at the feet. Wouldn't it be funny to see a picture of a warrior with shield, helmet, breastplate, belt, sword, barefoot?

Isn't that a funny thought? You know immediately he's not going into battle. That's how important the boots are. The warrior has to march across rough and rugged terrain. He must climb jagged, sharp rocks. He must wade through ponds and streams where the stones are slippery.

He has to walk through thorns or perhaps climb not only mountainsides, but sometimes trees to get a vantage point, often going over walls. The boots are so important, and these are like that. They are boots that are the preparation of the gospel of peace.

They prepare you for battle. What's the gospel of peace? The gospel means good news, and I take it that this is the peace we have with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is peace in the heart that makes us ready to fight. Christ, our peace, gives us the courage to face the enemy in the battle. I don't lack peace. I have peace, and I walk in it.

That's the whole point of this. Now we're halfway through the armor. It's a good time to take stock of the first three pieces.

B, B, B. Belt, breastplate, boots. How you doing? You walking in truth? You wearing the breastplate? You got on the boots? The right boots?

Well, then you're ready for some of the things that some time are laid aside and some time are worn. The first is a shield. It's maybe a silly way to remember it, but B, B, B, S, S, S. That's the armor. Belt, breastplate, boots. Shield, faith, the shield of faith.

Salvation, the scriptures, S, S, S. Faith, the shield of faith. There were two kinds of shields that the soldier carried. One was for close combat. It was usually round, about two feet across in diameter. This shield was strapped to the arm with leather straps, and whatever arm you carried the sword, the other arm carried the little shield, and you could use it to ward off the attack of close combat. The other was a sizable shield, about two and a half feet wide by about four and a half feet tall, heavy, made of wood covered with either leather or thin coating of metal or a little bit of both, not flammable for this reason because it would shield you from the flaming arrows of the enemy. See, back in those days when they fought, it wasn't with bullets.

It was with arrows and with spears, and often the enemy would dip the tip of that arrow or spear into something flammable, set it on fire, and then launch it in the air towards you, and the shield would deflect the arrows or the spear. Chuck Swindoll is teaching from Ephesians Chapter 6 on spiritual warfare. You're listening to Insight for Living, and we're in the final stretch of an exhaustive verse-by-verse study through Paul's letter to the Ephesians that will conclude next Tuesday. Chuck titled this signature series, Becoming a People of Grace.

To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. Now let me give you a sneak preview of the study that follows Ephesians. Soon Chuck will begin a comprehensive study through the Gospel According to Matthew. This first book in the New Testament tells the story of our king from his arrival in Bethlehem to the call for his great commission, and it's a brand new study never before presented on Insight for Living. To make the most of this new series, you may want to secure Swindoll's Living Insight Commentary for Matthew.

It comes in two hardbound volumes, and it's written in a style that's easy to understand, and the format is simple to navigate. These are excellent reference books that belong in the library of anyone who's a student of the Bible. So to purchase Swindoll's Living Insight Commentary for Matthew, go to insight.org slash store. And if you prefer, call us.

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If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888 or give online at insight.org. Music Chuck Swindoll has more to teach us about Strong Armor for Weak Sheep Thursday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Strong Armor for Weak Sheep, was copyrighted in 2000, 2001, and 2009. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2009 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited. Music