Episode Transcript
Tim: Welcome. We're back and so are you. And this is episode 72. This is the full Armor of God, part two. Now, for those of you who were with us last week, we covered part one of this. This is coming out of Ephesians chapter six, verses 10 through 18. And we got through the first three elements of the armor in the scripture here, and those were the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness. And the sandals of peace. So today we're going to be picking up our discussion at verse 16, but to prep us for that, I am gonna go back to verse 13, where it starts, the description of the armor. So starting at verse 13, in the NIV Ephesians 6. Therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything to stand, stand firm, then with the Belt of Truth buckled around your waist with the breast plate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Now this is where we'll be picking up our discussion today guys, and that's verse 16. It says, in addition to all this take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Now Mark, last week I know that I remember you saying something about the, you know, arrows being shot at us and flaming arrows and stuff. I think that's gonna dovetail will with this week, and I want to just go ahead and jump right in. So who wants to start us out?
Mark: Well, I'll just add a little something in here. Now, many of our listeners will know because we joke about it a lot, but Tim and I are both NIV translation guys, kind of our default setting. I've been using NIV since I first became a Christian years ago, . And Ajai likes the KJV and. We like to rib him about that. But truth be told, all three of us enjoy that translation as well. It's very poetic translations. One of the things I like about the K J V is that it's written in older English, so the sentence structures are different. And I think sometimes coming at scripture from a slightly different angle, even though the meaning is the same, because the word of God is living and active and we are changing as we go through our lives. You just see something new when you come from a slightly different angle or sentence structure. And such is the case in the KJV on verse 16. And the NIV Paul says in addition to all this, In the KJV, the Apostle Paul says, and above all, take up the shield of faith. And that really kind of just struck me because when you think about it, it's the core. It's the doorway that opens up and leads us into all the other riches of our glorious inheritance and the faith that brings us into the truth of the gospel, and it's our faith that helps us to understand. And access our righteousness. It's our faith that readies us and gives us peace. So I just think that's probably why in the KJV, they're elevating the shield of faith a little bit more because it's so integral to all the other different pieces of armor, which are truths of the gospel.
Tim: Good point, Mark. And I'm gonna throw this in here as well, and that is that the shield is not worn. The, the pieces we've talked about with the armor so far are literally worn belt brush plate shoes. They're articles of clothing. This is something that you hold you may have your arm through a pair of straps and it kind of may feel like you're wearing it, but it's a separate piece completely. And I think the reason for that is, It's because it's mobile. In other words, like if someone's attacking me from the left, I can swing my arm left. If someone's attacking me from the right, I can swing my arm right? Or if something's falling down on me, I can cover my head. And why is that important? That's because you have no idea where all these attacks are gonna come from. We can be attacked by ourselves. We have our ownselves down, and we don't have, maybe have the belief in ourself that we should, we're gonna be attacked by family. By friends, by total strangers, by trolls on the internet. These attacks will come from anywhere, but it's your faith that says, I have this faith in my God and what he says such that , I can tune those external attacks out and I can damper the internal attacks out because I have this shield to keep them away from me, and that shield is my faith. Ajai?.
Ajai: Yeah, that's a great point, Tim. And Mark. Again, you know, when we look at this right, the armor of God, Paul is using different metaphors here, but they all actually refer to the gospel and it is one integrated piece. So today we are focusing on works. Verse 16, it says, you know, taking the shield of faith. With which you'll be able to quench the fiery Darts of the wicked one. I would like to dig in a little bit into this one, the fiery darts of the wicked one. What are those fiery darts?
Tim: Accusations and lies?
Ajai: Yeah. The devil is called the accuser of the brethren, right? So he accuses us. And what does he accuse us of, you know, with all kinds of accusations? Mainly he comes to us. Hey, you've done something wrong. You've sinned, you've messed up. You know you're not supposed to do that. So he uses condemnation, and accusations as his weapons. And again, I think it is going back is of course, we are the shield of faith. But again, the shield of faith is pointing us back to our righteousness in Christ because , the whole gospel is about righteousness by faith and. , this has been on my heart a lot since we talked about the breastplate of righteousness. And I personally believe that many of the believers, we still have to establish ourselves in our righteousness, even though we believe that oh, we are made righteous, we are justified my sins, are forgiven, but in practice we don't act like that. And that's one of the reasons, we are so touchy and feely. And we are very reactive and we get offended because we don't know our status. You know, we are righteous in Christ. I just want to read a couple of quick scriptures from the Old Testament that talks about righteousness. Isaiah 54 verse 14. This is one of my favorite scriptures. In righteousness, you shall be established, you shall be far from oppression. You know, the oppression of the devil comes through accusations. When you are established in righteousness, you shall be far from oppression. And it says for you shall not fear, and from terror, it shall not come near you. For those of us who have anxiety attacks and panic attacks and we fear and all that, I believe , the solution is right here. When you're established in righteousness, the Bible says, fear will not even come near you. And I also personally believe, whoever knows that they're righteous, nothing, no power in the universe can defeat them. And the Bible clearly says in Isaiah 54, verse 17, no weapon formed against you shall prosper. And every tongue, which rises up in judgment, you shall condemn. And this is a heritage of the children of the Lord, and their righteousness is from me. See again, , we are talking with the weapons of the enemy, the attacks of the enemy and the accusations of the enemy, the wiles of the enemy, right? None of those things will prosper when our heart is established in righteousness.
Mark: \That's a great point, Ajai and I think the great thing about seeing faith as a shield is that, in so many different areas, the devil can try to plant condemnation and accusations in our mind. But when you have faith that what Christ did on the cross is enough. That's a shield that nothing's gonna get through when you have faith that your sins have been removed, all of 'em past, present, and future as far , as the east is from the west, and you have faith that when God said, I will remember them no more. The devil can never attack you on sin again. When you have faith that Christ on your behalf fully met the righteous requirement of the law. The, the devil can never again attack you on. You're not righteous, and you can really apply that to any of these aspects of the gospel here that Paul's talking about. The faith activates him. When you know that to the core, you're being, Satan can't touch you, he can't touch your mind, which is the only way he has, is to try to make you doubt your own salvation and, and doubt yourself.
Tim: So I want to take a really quick bunny trail here. I promise I want to try and make it quick, but we use sometimes use the words belief and faith a little interchangeably. And in English these days, they're very, very similar. But there really are two different meanings to this. I'm gonna take a quick swing at it and you guys can let me know what you think and then we'll move forward. But belief, in my opinion, and from some of the definitions I've looked up, belief is brain centered. It's your thinking, your logic. It's very based on your experiences and stuff. You may not have the evidence, but you believe because of circumstances, evidence, hearsay, whatever it is, whereas faith, Is much more of a spirit centric thing than it is a mind thing, because I can look at some of the stuff we, we believe and go, wow, my brain just can't wrap itself around that. It's hard for me to believe and understand. Noah's Ark, , that's a whole story that has, you know, it, it's just outside of the realm of anything I've ever dealt with. But faith says in my spirit, I know that. I know that I know. That I'm right or that this is right. And that's like I said, they're similar but very different. Are you guys got input on that?
Mark: Yeah, I don't wanna say you're wrong because you're right in a certain aspect. It depends. We always come back to this when the three of us debate things, and it's the definition of a term. Scriptural belief is not just a mental. Ascent to something, which is what you're talking about, which in this world, a lot of people have that kind of belief where there are a ton of scriptures where Jesus used the words believe. Interchangeably with faith, but it never means that type of shallow mental exercise, mental ascent. It always means a trust, a faith where the rubber hits the road. And he who believes in him will never be put to shame. That doesn't mean, well, I believe Jesus existed. That means I believe he is who he said he is. I believe he died for me. I believe in the resurrection. It definitely is not that first type of definition that you covered and that was good to point that out.
Tim: Scripturally, you're a hundred percent correct and I agree with you completely. I. I was looking at more of it from just a common language use today type of view. Ajai, did you have anything you wanted to add to that?
Ajai: Yeah, in fact, I was pulling up the scriptures to define the biblical faith. And Tim, I think, like Mark said, I think you are referring to mental as accent, right? It's not a believing from the heart, but you know, you know in your mind. That kind of mental accent is not faith. But in the scriptures though, like Mark said, scripture uses faith and believing interchangeably. In fact, you know, the scriptures that I'm going to read, I think will throw some more light, not only in terms of what belief and faith is, but also the nature of our faith and the kind of faith God requires from us in Romans chapter four, starting from verse three, for what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now, to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work but believe on him, who justifies ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. just as. David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and who sins are covered. Blessed is a man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. See, in this one passage you see believing and faith are so interwoven, right? For example, it says, For to him does not work, but believes on him. Who justifies the ungodly? His faith is counted for righteousness. There are three things here. You know when you do not work, that is a first requirement, right? You cannot bring your works to the table. He should not lay your works aside, but believe on him. And what do you believe for ?You believe for justification. And who does he justify? He justified the ungodly. So you come to God as an ungodly and you put aside your works. You don't come to based on your works, but simply believe on God as the God who justifies ungodly. His faith is accounted for righteousness. So the act of believing is considered as faith, , in the same sentence, and the result of our believing is justification, and that is our blessedness just as. David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom. God imputes righteousness apart from works, blessed is a man whose lawless deeds are forgiven and who sins are covered. Blessed is a man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. So when we talk about faith, we are not talking about just believing God for random things. Oh, I'm believing God for this. I'm believing God for that. You know, that's well and good, but the biblical faith is we are believing on God. Specifically believing in the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ, the cross, the death, resurrection, and burial of our Lord Jesus Christ, for our justification of sin. That is the biblical faith, and that's called the righteousness of faith. When we are made righteous by faith, everything else comes to us freely. It includes salvation, health provision, name it, right, eternal life. But all of this comes to us. Because of the righteousness of faith. And when Bible talks about faith, it's primarily referring to trusting on Lord Jesus Christ for our justification.
Tim: Great point. Also, Ajay, and again, I don't argue with either one of your discussion points. I think when I brought this up, I kind of feel like the translators of the Bible. Way back when, had to come up with a verb for faith and believe is that verb cuz faith isn't a verb, you know, I mean, it can, it may come out as action, but it's really not. So in the Bible, belief and faith, pretty much are used interchangeably and I agree with you completely based on all of your reasonings. I apologize for taking us off on that little bunny trail.
Mark: No, that's a, that's a good bunny trail. And James, in James two 19, he takes us on the same bunny trail when he says, you believe that there is one God good. Even the demons believe that and shudder. Now that's the kind of belief you're talking about. Just the sheer mental they, they don't even have to have faith because they know, they know that God is one God and that who Christ is, they know him. But that's the kind of belief, that's just a mental ascent that indicates no trust, no love, no relationship with.So it's good that you brought that up. I think that's always Good to stipulate.
Ajai: Yeah. In fact if you would allow me Tim, I think in support of what you're saying, whatever we do is is by faith. So if you want to dwell on faith a little bit, you know, we have this whole chapter on faith in Hebrews 11. Now, faith is the substance of things, hope for, and evidence of things not seen. for by it the Elders us obtain a good testimony. And then he goes on by faith we understand the worlds, were, formed by the word of God, by faith Abel offered a better sacrifice. And this is one of my favorites in verse 11, it says, by faith, Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age. Because she judged him faithful, who has promised. So judging God as faithful is considered as faith and without faith, basically, you know, we cannot please God because the Bible says, without faith it is impossible to please God. And again, you know, when we talk about faith, I think we can go a lot into it, but we go right back into all the discussions we have. Faith is opposite of the law, right? You know, if it is, law is not of faith the Bible says. So. In other words, anything that belongs to the law does not belong to faith. Again, like we already talked about, if we approach God by faith, we cannot approach based on the law. So there they're total opposites. There's a lot we can talk about in faith. But I'm gonna stop here.
Tim: All right, Ajai. And it's a topic that we do go over quite a bit throughout the entire series of we've been doing this podcast. So , why don't we see if we can move on a little bit here? We'll move on. Picking up at verse 17, take the helmet of salvation. I'm gonna stop there. Five words. Take the helmet of salvation, doesn't, doesn't give us much more information on that. So why would, why would Paul take the image of a helmet and equate it to salvation?
Ajai: So , when we talked about these different Pieces of the armor, when we talked about the breastplate of righteousness, we said, protects are heart because that's where , our heart is condemned by the attacks of the enemy, by the wiles of the enemy. That's why, God gave us a breastplate of righteousness. So here he's talking about for helmet, the hope of salvation. So the hope of salvation. You know what is there in our head, right? It's on our mind. And our thoughts. So one of the things that we really need to establish is not only in our righteousness, but also in the hope of eternal life. If we doubt that, we don't have eternal life, we can lose our salvation, then we won't be standing on a firm ground. Because imagine, , every moment, every other day, you're wondering whether I'm saved or not. That will be a preoccupation. You'll really not enjoy what God gave you. And also you'll not be able to focus on, preaching the gospel, for example, focus on serving others or focus on living the life that God gave us. You're always constantly worried about, oh, how do I keep my salvation? Right? I feel like, , in order to protect our mind and our thinking, God gave us this helmet of salvation, and in Thessalonians it says, you know, for helmet you keep the hope of salvation. So understanding that, we have eternal life and we cannot lose it, is extremely important again, to stand firm and have a firm footing in this Christian life.
Tim: Mark, do you have a reply?
Mark: Well what I would say, this is a very interesting discussion to me as we look at all the different pieces of armor and many have endeavored throughout the centuries to look for some type of. Meaning even beyond what the words say. But when you think about it, and we, we mentioned this in last episode, that all these are just aspects of what we have in Christ. They're aspects of the gospel, the riches of our glorious inheritance. Paul could have just as easily said, we take the helmet of peace. Because we have peace in our minds now because we know we can't lose our salvation. He could have said, we take the helmet of righteousness because as we ponder and reflect and contemplate that we are the righteousness of God, it changes us. I think it's a very interesting discussion, but there's almost I like to zoom out. I think I mentioned last time, and look at it as big picture. I think there's great value for us digging in, but there are many aspects and I think Paul's trying to give us just one of his many metaphors that he uses to help us to understand and receive all we have in Christ. So.
Tim: All right. Well, with that, I'm gonna move on to the rest of that verse. Picking back up in the middle of verse 17, it says, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Now, this is, this is a piece that's not armor at all. This is a weapon, you know, so when Paul's talking about the armor, I did say he was kind of equating the pieces to probably what the Roman centurions wore. And of course, they wore. A sword on their side at, at the very least. But this is, this is now a weapon that he's putting in our hands. And we said earlier we're called to, to put all these on and then to stand, we're not really to fight. So why do we need a weapon if we're not gonna fight? I'll throw that one open to you guys.
Ajai: ,so I think Mark, I understand what you were saying before, right? I think people get too carried away with the metaverse, but I think the intent of that is not so much, okay. How is it a helmet? How is it a sword? That's not the point. The point Paul is making is, there are two things here, ? One is he's clearly saying that. , in order to fight the spiritual battles, the enemy is attacking us on a regular basis constantly. In order to stand against the attacks of the enemy, we need to understand and believe all these aspects of the gospel. So that is a point. So the first point is he said, , we believe that we are righteous. And then he says , stand firm in the gospel of peace, in the gospel, right? And then he is saying that, you know, you understand you have to put on the shield of faith because only by faith we receive everything that we are given in Lord Jesus Christ. And now he's saying, , for, you want to be sure in your salvation , you want to be firmly footed and you want to be sure that you are saved and your hope of eternal life. And I also believe that, , he's using those. Metaphor for a reason because a helmet protects your brain, and the brush plate protects your heart and our brain. Brain in the sense, our mind and heart are the two things that come into play. , when you live our life here on this earth. And now he's saying, , for helmet, this sword of the Spirit, which is a word of God again, the word of God, , is the gospel, ? But regardless, you know, even if you take it in the broader sense as a word of God, The point is the spirit does not work or operate in our lives apart from the word of God. And the Spirit uses the word of God to work out the salvation in us or the work out the life of Christ in us. So it's very important for us to understand that God gave us this word, right? And the word of God is the truth of God and the word of God and spirit of God work hand in hand. And we should not make light of the word of God. That is a part, you know, , some people go all Spirit, right? And they totally ignore the word of God. And some people say, I'm just strictly word of God and they ignore the spirit, but the way God gave us, is it saying this word of the spirit, not ours word. I think if you notice that, . It's not our, so the, the spirit uses the word of God, to. ward off the devil here. So it's very important for us to stay grounded in the word of God and and take the Word of God. And claim the Word of God and believe the Word of God.
Mark: Yeah, that's a great point. And I just wanted to add one more little sentence on what I said, right. That you responded to aj and that is, I can just imagine the, the Apostle Paul. Watching throughout the century's mankind looking for a hidden meaning in each of the pieces of the armor. I can just imagine saying, wait a minute, this isn't about the armor. It's about the righteousness, the truth, the readiness of the gospel of peace, faith, it's about. It's about the spirit. It's about salvation. That's the only point I'm making is , that it's about those things which are the gospel, which we have. And Paul's just using the armor as a vehicle. And , my thing is there's just, at times men throughout the centuries have gotten more hung up on the individual pieces of Roman armor than, and I, and I don't think that's what we are doing at all. In fact, we're shining light , on what we have in the gospel. So, That is all. I just wanted to further explain where I was coming from.
Tim: I kind of feel, I kind of feel like you're saying Tim, don't, don't do that. Don't look at these pieces like armor and try and make, uneducated guesses as to what that's all about mixed together.
Mark: It's very similar to you saying to me and AJ. Don't use the word belief like this in the wrong way. You know what I'm saying? And that's what I'm saying. It's fine to look at all the pieces of, of armor as long as the focus is on what they represent, on the real things we have in Christ.
Tim: Amen. Amen. Well, there's one more verse in this guys. Let's let's finish strong here and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayer and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. That's good advice. No matter where it put, we put it in the Bible,
Mark: but there's no armor there, Tim. Well, I, I was,
Tim: I would just gonna point that out, Mark, but I felt like I shouldn't.
Mark: Okay, we'll just leave it at that then. Those are obviously awesome things and really are a prime way that we use. What the armor represents and put into action is in our, in our relationship with God and the wonderful, unbelievable gift we've been given to have an open conversation with him.
Ajai: Let us quickly, , also look into this verse, one thing that struck me is, , he's saying, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. Being watchful to the end with all perseverance and s supplication for all the saints. So, , sometimes we think, yeah, , God knows everything. , I don't need to pray. So again, I think sometimes we just take the word of God at its face value. We may not understand everything and sometimes, , I feel logically try to , interpret the word of God and ignore some of the things we might miss out on stuff, because our logic is not greater than the word of God. So praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, you know, praying in the spirit, praying always, you know, when we talk about prayer, it's not always about oh, going in a closet, going on our knees and spending hours. But our lifestyle, our way of living is always prayer. In fact, , we are talking to God always, . Within our spirit. And even when we are alone, we are talking to God always. That is prayer. So leaning on God and receiving from God, prayer is also a means of receiving what Christ has done for us. So I think net net, what we are saying is, you know, all these are the means that God gave us. To live this Christian life and ward off attacks of the enemy
Mark: And there's that second part of that, AJ and Tim, with this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people at first sight. I kind of coupled it with the line before and pray in the spirit that he's helping. I, I believe what he's saying here with this is in mind. Be alert. And always keep on praying. He's hearkening back to those coupled that chapter he just did on the Armor of God. He's saying because these things are true, that I just wrote about your battle not being against flesh and blood, but being against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms, the forces of darkness, and that these things are true about the armor and what you have in Christ. He's saying with this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's prayer. It's like taking in that teaching he just gave, it's the way you activate it. Keep it in your mind. Be alert, have it on the forefront of your mind, and pray for everybody because you know that they're under attack. The devil's number one goal in life is to keep people away from Jesus Christ to try to separate them. So he's saying, with all these things on the forefront of your mind, being alert, pray for people. Very good.
Tim: Very good point, Mark. Well, guys, I want to give you a chance to take today's discussion and , give us your summary. Why don't we go in alphabetical order tonight, Ajai?.
Ajai: I feel like As we did this podcast, and , as I'm thinking through this and these things are , coming to me and in, in, I don't know what to say, but they are helping me with, , strengthening me. So I feel like All these elements are all the truths of the gospel that are mentioned here. , they'll help us walk in, , more freedom and also without the fear of the enemy.
Mark: And I, I would just finish up with a quote from a very old pastor friend of mine. Throughout probably the last couple decades, I've heard a ton of teaching on how important it is for believers to understand who they are in Christ, their identity in Christ. But my pastor friend said it's just as important. To know who Christ is in us. And I really feel like Paul's teaching here on the armor of God is about that who Christ is in us Christ is our belt of truth. He is our breastplate of righteousness. He is our feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace. He is our shield. He's our helmet of salvation that protects us and he is our sort of the spirit. So that, that's what I love about this. It's just really showing us who Christ is in us and the power we have. From him, as I mentioned in the last episode, it's not just the armor, it's not our armor, it's the armor of God. It's God, God's armor that he , clothes us in. , and Paul talks a lot about this armor. He, he talks about being clothed in Christ, putting on Christ. In fact, even though he doesn't really go into the armor of God, To this detail anywhere else. He uses the term resate of righteousness in a number of his different books as a teaching. So I just love how this tells us not just who we are in Christ, but who he is in us and the power he's given to his children.
Tim: And I'll say that when you have the truth, you gain righteousness. When you have the truth and righteousness, you can stand in peace, and then you will have the shield of your faith to stop the slings and arrows of your enemies. And you have the helmet of salvation and the sword, which is the word. It's the spirit of God to keep you spiritually perfect for the rest of your. Ever
Mark: the rest of your ever that that's a new Timism?
Tim: Well, I'm okay with that one. It works for me. But guys, this has been a very, very interesting conversation. I've enjoyed it thoroughly. And with that, I think we're gonna be finished for this episode. We thank everybody for listening. We hope you'll come back and join us again. If you're enjoying these, if you're getting something out of them, if you're being blessed, please refer us to your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers, anybody. We'd love to have them here at two. That's it for tonight, everybody. Thank you very much. We'll talk to you again the next time.
