In this sermon, we will look at the meaning of Ephesians 6 verse 13 to 18 which will help us learn about the whole armor of God, where we will try to see the full lists and their meanings.
And without any waste of time, let us get into this sermon.
Ephesians 6 verses 11 to 13 bible verse.
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. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 11:13-18.
The meaning if Ephesians 6 verse 11 to 13.
Ephesians 6 verses 13 to 18 talks about the whole armor of God a Christian must put on in order to withstand the evil days.
In Ephesians 6:11, the scripture advises us to put on the whole armor of God, so we could be able to overcome the wiles of the devil.
And in Ephesians 11:13-18, the scripture takes the time to list out the whole armor for us.
But it is however sad to know that, countless Christians fall into the wiles of the devil, as well as go to war with him unprepared.
They spend long hours praying and fasting, tarrying and attending conventions and crusades in a bid to wage war with the devil.
But do not dress in their whole Christian armor of God as we will see in the scripture below.
So in this sermon, we are going to list out all those armors and explain them respectively.
Whole Armor of God: Full List.
From the above scripture, we can list out the whole armor of God in the order below:
- Salvation – as a helmet on the head.
- Righteousness – as a breastplate to protect the chest.
- Truth – as a belt on the waist.
- Faith – as a shield in the left hand for defense.
- Word of God – as a sword in the right hand to fight back.
- Proclaiming the gospel of peace – as shoes on the feet.
The whole armor of God: Meanings.
1. Salvation.
Now the first armor a believer needs is salvation, which can be gotten by the complete forsaking of every sinful nature which is termed as repentance, and afterward being baptized in the Name of Jesus for the forgiveness of past sins in order to receive the Holy Spirit of God as it is written:
“Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. Acts 2:38-39
And we can see the purpose of why God promised to give us this Holy Spirit in this scripture:
“I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them. Ezekiel 36:27
And it is this gift that will help that person to achieve the next armor – righteousness.
2. Righteousness.
Thus with the Spirit of God dwelling in the believer according to the promise seen above, he or she will now be able to obey God, and at such attain that level of righteousness as it is written:
(Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.1John 3:7.
3. Truth.
The truth here does not mean owning up to a wrong done but as we see from this scripture; Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17)
Rather, truth entails knowing exactly what the scripture says i.e; understanding the mystery behind the bible and being able to interpret the bible.
Because we understand that there are many unstable people out there who have misquoted the scripture to destroy themselves and others Peter observes in 2 Peter 3:15-16.
Therefore, every child of God must depend on the Holy Spirit to be their personal tutor; as John declares in 1 John 2:26-27.
Never forget that God had earlier promised us the Spirit for this purpose
Turn at my reproof; surely I will pour my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. (Proverbs 1:23)
And Jesus Himself confirmed this promise on several occasions.
He said the Holy Spirit will be a helper sent by the Father’s name, and He will teach us all things. And also help us remember all the things He said while on Earth. John 14:26.
We can’t hear the many things that He has to say now, but when the Spirit of truth comes, HE will guide us into all truth.
Because He will not speak on His own authority but will speak exactly what He hears from God to us. John 16:12-13
In Mathew 4:2-11; we see how Jesus was able to overcome the devil because He knew the truth in the word of God.
In the first temptation (verses 3-4) the devil asked Jesus to change stone to bread and Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 to overcome him.
The second temptation (verse 5-8) the devil himself quoted Psalm 91:11-12 to deceive Jesus into jumping from a high fence with the intention that God will not allow Him to die or break any of His bones.
But because Jesus knew the scriptures he overcame him by quoting Deuteronomy 6:16.
And in the last temptation (verse 9-11); Jesus overcame him by quoting Deuteronomy 6:13; after he, the devil, asked Jesus to bow down and worship him in exchange for worldly riches.
As we can see Jesus Himself was able to overcome the devil’s temptation using the word of God. “It is written”, and
He did that to teach us that we must know the scriptures in order to be able to overcome the temptations of the devil. Especially when he will misquote it to deceive us.
For instance, if the devil wants to push you into sin by misquoting Romans 3:10; “there is no righteous man on earth”.
You will quote 1 John 3:7 “Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous) to overcome him.
4. Faith.
Faith here can be seen in two ways:
1. Hearing and putting the word of God to practice as it is written:
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17). “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. (James 1:22)
2. Secondly a believer must never be carried away by the good things and pleasures of life, i.e. falling to the lust of the flesh.
But rather, he should look forward to all the promises of God, through Christ Jesus; which he has not yet seen, keeping in mind that:
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11
For we walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7
While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18.
5. Word of God.
A believer must always carry in his head, as well as make every prayer using the word of God, (i.e. applying biblical portions in prayers) which is also called the sword of the spirit.
Once while asleep, I had a spiritual attack that left me so weak when I woke up.
Rolling on my bed, I remembered 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 and quoted the last phrase in silence: (for when I am weak, then I am strong). And immediately I finished, I felt something heavy come in through my nose and I became energized instantly.
Note what Paul said in the preceding chapter of this lesson text i.e. in verse 18.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit,
But it’s rather sad to discover that believers spend long hours repeating their own words in prayers. Thinking God will hear them even as our Lord Jesus taught us:
‘And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Mathew 6:7
While others think they will defeat the devil using insulting words:
Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries, Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “the Lord rebuke you!” but these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. Jude 1:9-10
And many fall victim to the calling of the Holy Ghost fire for destruction because they do not know the scriptures.
In Luke 9:51-56, while Jesus and his disciples were passing through the city of Samaria; the inhabitants of that city tried to stop Him.
And His disciples James and John said: “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?”
But He rebuked them saying: “you do not know what manner of spirit you are of. “For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” And they went to another village.
6. Proclaiming the gospel of peace.
Every believer must be ready to go out and preach the gospel.
As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things! Romans 10:15
As our Lord and Savior commanded:
And he said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature .Mark 16:15
Now this is the armor that the Christians of nowadays lack so much.
Some say that preaching is a gift of the spirit available to some believers, and as such every Christian should not be a preacher.
But they fail to understand that when Jesus used to send His disciples out to preach; he did not make any selection. But rather would send all of them out at once. Mathew 10:5-7, Mark 6:7,12, Luke 9:1-2, Luke 10:1.
And He afterward shows us that people He converts are many but there are few of us Christians who preach
Then He said to them, ‘the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Luke 10:2
So as we see in the above scripture, we must pray to God to convert more Christians who would accept to do the work of preaching. Since the others who claim to be believers and do not preach are still unbelievers who are still drinking milk of the word; and are yet to grow to eat solid food. Hebrews 5:12-14
These kinds are the ones we call ‘babes in Christ as Paul taught us to in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3
These types of Christians are ashamed to tell people about Christ.
Because they don’t understand that even the disciples had this same problem when Jesus was taken away from them, to the point that they had to lock themselves up in the upper room praying always.
But as soon as the Holy Spirit came upon them as tongues of fire on the Pentecost day (Acts 2) and they received power as Jesus promised them in Acts 1:8, so they went out and began to speak the word of God with boldness. And even after that, we see how they prayed for boldness again in Acts 4:24-30.
Therefore every believer must pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to come upon him or her and enable them to take on this armor of proclaiming the gospel of peace in whatever way they can.
Whether it’s in the open streets or from house to house as Paul himself used to do notwithstanding his status:
“And how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house. Acts 20:20.
Conclusion.
Beloved, I must tell you with all honesty in the Spirit; if you do not dress in the whole armor of God as you see above; in other words, if your life does not work according to this sermon. You need to start doing it now because, without that, you will never be fit for the spiritual warfare that we wage every day with the devil.
Remember:
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness 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. Ephesians 6:12-13