Put On The Armour Of God

Our text from Ephesians chapter 6 is the second trumpet call. Those two trumpets were also used in the time of war.  When the enemy was coming against them, they blew with both the trumpets.  And in one of the cases, we know that the King of Judah was at war with the King of the northern kingdom, (I think his name was Abijah), and the priests blew the trumpets, and they won that war.  GOD heard them. The enemy is formidable.  But all around us there are the angels of the LORD.  'The angel of the LORD encamps around them that fear Him, and delivers them.'  When we are told here, 'Take up the whole armour of GOD,'the verb is in the plural.  All of you 'take up the whole armour of GOD.' Everyone is addressed; everybody is to be well armed.

You know what they say about the octopus?  He always goes into battle well armed!  And you and I ought to be like the octopus; well armed.  Romans, Chapter 13, verses 11 and 12: 'And do this, knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep.  For now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.  The night is far spent; the day is at hand.  Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.  Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness; not in licentiousness and lewdness; not in strive and envy.  But put on the LORD, YESHUA the Messiah, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.'

We read about a certain great king who lived in the days of Isaiah, the Prophet, Uzziah.  He prepared armour for all his soldiers.  We saw the bad example of Saul, the first king of Israel.  In the day of battle, when they had to face the Philistines, there was no sword; no shield; no spear found among the people of Israel.  Only with Saul and his son Jonathan.  What a dismal state of affairs!  A king should always give his soldiers the armour that they need.  They shouldn't have to find it for themselves.  He should provide it, and that is what Uzziah does.

Now Messiah is our King.  Here He is speaking as our King.  He says, 'Here is My armour.  Take it; wear it; use it!  You're not left defenceless.'  The LORD YESHUA said, 'I will not leave you orphans.  I will come to you.'  He gives us all that we need for life and Godliness, so that we will succeed in our walk with GOD from day to day.  So that we will be equipped to face what comes upon us.  'Take unto you the whole armour of GOD.' Not some of it; but all of it.  Protection, here, is for the heart; for the mind, and for the will.

What was the problem, really, with the two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus?  They were so distressed; so disconsolate; so downhearted.  What was their real problem? As that stranger told them; He says, 'O you senseless ones.  Slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.' And what He is saying to them, is what He says to us.  If you and I have spiritual problems, it is because we have overlooked something in the Word of GOD.  Everything there is provided for us.  The whole armour of GOD.

In Acts, Chapter 20, and verse 27: Shaul is on his way to Jerusalem.  He knows very well that the people to whom he is speaking will never see him again.  He says this to them, Acts 20 and verse 27: 'For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of GOD.'  'The whole armour of GOD'means the whole counsel of GOD.  That means everything that GOD has in His Word is necessary for us.  Not only for defence; but also for attack.  It is GOD's providing, and therefore, it is spiritual in nature. 

Even in this, we find that Messiah has gone ahead of us.  We hear Messiah here saying, 'Take to you the whole armour of GOD,' He has already done so Himself.  Go back with me to Isaiah 59; here is a description of the coming Messiah.  Verse 16 and 17.  Let me read from verse 15; Isaiah 59 from verse 15 through 17: 'So truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.  Then the LORD saw it and it displeased Him that there was no justice.  He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor.  Therefore, His own arm brought salvation for Him; and His own righteousness, it sustained Him.  For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak.' 

There we see Messiah; it is the Redeemer.  And He's coming to redeem His people; and He puts on this armour that He asks us to put on.  He's always first in what He tells us to do.  He's always there before us; the armour of GOD.  And then, for the new Covenant, 2 Corinthians, Chapter 10; 2^nd Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 10, verse 3: 'For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.  For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in GOD; for pulling down strongholds; casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of GOD; bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Messiah.' 

See, the weapons of our warfare are mighty in GOD; they're not carnal; they're not physical, earthly; they are spiritual.  And with these, we read:  'We are able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.' We are able as we keep our eyes on our Master.