God’s Armour for His soldiers

God provides armour for his soldiers, not for the unsaved. It doesn’t work for them. The gospel is the power of God for our salvation, but it’s foolishness to those who don’t know Jesus. The natural man doesn’t accept the things of God, they are foolishness to him and he can’t understand them. The armour of God is uniquely for us. In Matthew 13 Jesus said, ‘To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.’ This armour is only for God’s soldiers.

Meaningful truth
We might think, ‘We do a good Christian course on helping our young couples to prepare for marriage. Maybe we could invite some unsaved people too.’ Certainly, we can share common sense values. We could tell the guys, ‘It might be nice if you washed occasionally, communicated with your wife and had occasional date nights together.’ But anyone could say that. We have special armour that has to do with Jesus. God’s word tells the husband, ‘Love your wife and cherish her as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.’ Such truth is meaningless to the outsider.

If you want to be in the battle but protect your marriage, you must have God’s armour. Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Wives submit to your husbands. As Christ is the head of the man, so a husband is the head of the wife as Christ is head of the church. Such thinking is not embraced in the world because it’s a gospel secret which works only for us. Why? Because we understand who Christ is, what man is and what marriage is. Actually, the fact that two become one is a great mystery. It’s Christ and the church. It’s sublime, amazing, glorious. Sure, we can wash, communicate and have evenings out, but we have that unique extra special something that they don’t have. It’s not ‘old fashioned’. It’s God’s truth, his armour and we disregard it at our peril.

Similarly, common sense doesn’t help believers. We hear the words, ‘Don’t cry over spilt milk’ and ‘Things are bound to get better’. These encouragements may keep unbelievers going, but they have no place in our battle. Little ditties won’t defend us. Only when we wear God’s armour can we win his war. So don’t regard carelessly the things that God has said. His word comes to us with all power, authority, and ability to defend us and make us conquerors. God has given us unique armour.

This post was adapted from the 2nd of three sermons on the Armour of God preached at Together on a Mission 2010