Q & A

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Well, I invite you to turn with me to Ephesians 6 as we continue our, I guess almost three-year journey through this great letter. Someone asked me when I was going to be finishing Ephesians. I hope the question wasn't, you know, how much longer is it going to be? Basically, I'm looking at about four or five more messages, and we'll be done with this great letter, but it's been a wonderful journey through this magnificent letter of Paul to the church in Ephesus. It's taken a long time to get through it because there's so much here. You know, from time to time, I read an article that's critical of expository preaching, especially expository preaching that takes too long to get through a book of the Bible. And there are some legitimate concerns.

Perhaps you've heard of the New England Puritan who was asked to come pastor a church and he pastored that church for over twenty years. He went to the church and started by preaching, beginning to preach through the prophecy of Isaiah. More than twenty years later, he died in Isaiah 8. Now that's a little slow even for me, but my mentor as you know (and dear friend) always taught us that slower is better than faster (why is that?) because deep is better than shallow. Our worship can only rise as high as our understanding of the truth of God goes deep. If we simply cut across the surface of the waves of revelation, we have not begun to mine the deepness of the mind of God. And so, it's imperative that we do that.

I think one of the most common arguments against taking time to work your way through a letter like this is well, that's not how it was done in the first century. I mean after all; Paul wrote this letter to the church in Ephesus, and people gathered, and someone stood up and simply read through the letter. And that's true, but understand that Paul did all the preaching and explaining up front. Paul had led many of these people in the church in Ephesus to Christ almost ten years before he wrote them this letter on his second missionary journey through Asia Minor.

And then on his third missionary journey, he spent almost three years with these people. And he tells us in Acts 20 as he says goodbye to the Ephesian elders that he not only taught them the Word of God on the Lord's Day, but he taught them daily and from house to house for those nearly three years because he knew his time was short. He knew he was going to be taken away, and so, he tried to make the most of his time pouring his teaching day after day after day into those people. And then six years after he left them, he writes this letter back. He ministered there for nearly three years teaching. And so, in a sense, his letter to them is like a summary of all that he had given them and taught them while he was there.

But when we study Ephesians, we have to work back the opposite way. None of us have had the privilege of sitting under the apostle Paul. So, we instead, have to fill out his meaning over time on the back end of the process. Paul taught on the front end, and his letter was really a summary of what he taught. We take that condensed summary and have to unpack it over time gradually. That's why we're spending a week on each piece of the believer's armor because what the church in Ephesus would have known intuitively, we don't. As with many of the New Testament letters, there was so much that had already been taught, so much that had already been written, and the letter we have is really a brief summary of all of that, that we need to unpack in its fullness.

Now we're looking at Ephesians 6:10 - 20 - that paragraph, that unit of thought. It begins with Paul giving us our marching orders as soldiers. Notice verse 10.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. [How can we do that?] Verse 11, Put on the full armor of God ... [Why is this so important? And verse 11 goes on to say], … so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes [or the tactics] of the devil. [The devil is out to destroy your soul and my soul, and we better be on guard. And it's not just the devil alone. Verse 12 says he has an army that's, of supernatural forces that is also out to destroy us. Notice] For our struggle [that is, our hand-to-hand combat] is not against flesh and blood [it's not against people], but against the rulers, [and] against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness [this hierarchy of spiritually evil beings], against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Satan has his intention to destroy us, and he does so through this powerful army that he has amassed. Paul's point is that the enemy we are fighting every day is too powerful for us. We can only stand against his attacks - when he attacks the Word of God, when he attacks us with intimidation by fear and persecution, when he attacks us by personally tailored temptation - we can only stand against him if we stand in Christ's own strength.

The question is how. How can I have Christ's own strength? Paul answers that in an extended analogy or metaphor of a soldier's armor. We can only be strong when we take Christ's own armor and put it on. Now fortunately, he goes on to explain what that means. In the second part of this passage, Paul tells us that to survive spiritually, we have to put on God's armor. And in verses 14 to 17, he describes that armor.

The first piece of armor is the belt of truth. Look at verse 14. "Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH." We looked at this already, but let me just remind you that the belt here that we're to put on, the Roman soldier, before he did anything else, would put on this belt to cinch up his tunic to prepare him to put on the rest of the armor. It provided a sort of anchor point for everything else. This belt for us is a growing knowledge of biblical truth. If you're going to stand against Satan and his attacks, you better have a growing knowledge of God's truth contained in the Word of God. That is the anchor point for everything else.

The second piece of armor that we've already looked at is the breastplate of righteousness. Again, verse 14 goes on to say, "HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS." Our breastplate, the thing that protects our vital organs and our life itself, is made up of righteousness – not our own righteousness, but instead the application of Christ's righteousness. As we looked at it, the breastplate is the practical application of the doctrine of justification. A believer has been declared righteous before God through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And when we're under attack, we have to put on that breastplate. We have to remind ourselves that we stand in His righteousness alone. Just like the Roman soldier's breastplate shielded his crucial organs from attack and thereby preserved his life, in the same way the practical application of the doctrine of justification shields and protects our spiritual life. It protects us from the false gospels that Satan puts out in the world. It protects us from Satan's temptations of various kinds.

I talked about very practically how to deal with this breastplate of righteousness. It works like this. You find yourself in the middle of a trial. You find yourself having just given in to sin. And you have the temptation from Satan to sort of throw it all aside and walk away, throw down the towel and say it's done, I've failed again. He comes to you, and he says, "You don't deserve anything from God. You don't deserve to be heard before God. You are guilty and unworthy. You are a wretch. What are you doing coming back to God?"

Your answer to him should be: "You're absolutely right. In and of myself, I have no right to approach God, but I am clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. God sees me as if I had lived His holy life, and therefore, I can come into His presence – not because of my righteousness, but His." We oppose Satan's attacks with the truth of justification. We put on the breastplate of righteousness and when we do that, Satan's attack hits against that breastplate and falls down harmlessly to the ground.

Now today we come to the third piece of armor that we have not yet looked at, and it's the shoes of the gospel, the shoes of the gospel. Look at verse 15, "… and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE." Now again, to understand the analogy, we've got to first go back and understand what Paul's describing. We have to transport ourselves back into the first century and understand the Roman soldier's shoes because he's bouncing off of that to give us this analogy which people in the church in Ephesus would have freely understood. There were Roman soldiers who would have both been stationed there in Ephesus as well as made their way constantly through that great city. And so, they understood. They had an immediate picture in their mind. We don't so we have to go back and get that picture. Let me give it to you.

The footwear for the Roman soldier was nothing like today's soldier. It wasn't some huge boot that shielded the entire foot from almost every possible danger. Instead, they were really glorified sandals called "caligae". Most of the sandal was an intricate pattern cut from a single piece of thick leather. They would have selected a piece of leather about the width of a foot, which was of course the normal size of the human foot, and then about two feet wide because the sides would have to lap up on the shin, up on the leg. They would have taken that one piece of solid leather and out of that leather, they would have cut an intricate pattern. When they were done cutting that intricate pattern, they would still have had simply one piece of leather.

The part that went beneath the foot would have been solid, and the rest of what they had cut would have been sort of finger-like. The sides came up on either side of the foot and ankle to about eight to twelve inches up the shin, and they were like fingers of leather surrounding the top of the foot and surrounding the ankle. This leather upper was then attached to a sole that had been made separately. They would have taken several pieces of leather the shape of the bottom of the human foot, and they would have bound those several pieces of thick leather together, normally at least three quarters of an inch. And then they would have glued the intricate pattern they cut out for the sides and the sole to that and then hammered it all together with some nails coming through from the bottom. They would have bent the nails over as they came through the top and then glued a piece of leather on top of all of that to serve as a smooth foot bed so that none of the nails would hit the bottom of the foot.

Then to complete the shoe, they would have stitched just a small portion on the back of the heel together to give support for the heel. And then they would have taken a leather strap, and much as we have shoelaces, they would have laced the front of that intricate pattern of the sandal up their shin and tied it off. In fact, our modern shoelaces are really built on the Roman sandal used by the soldiers in the first century.

For colder climates, the sandals were more of a closed pattern with more leather left and less leather cut out of the pattern. And they would have added wool socks and wool leggings as well to keep them warm in those situations.

Now what purpose did these shoes serve? Why were they so important? The soldier's shoes for the Roman soldier were very important for several reasons - first of all, for mobility. If you've read anything about history, you know that in the years before Alexander the Great, an army would move very little distance. But Alexander the Great who lived and fought and conquered in the fourth century before Christ, he came up with the value of a fast-moving army and of course was able to capture a large portion of the known world. The Romans simply copied Alexander. Their armies would lay down roads often as soon as they did anything else. And they would often march over great distances taking vast amounts of territory. So, their footwear was very important for mobility.

It was also important for protection. This is a little gruesome to think about, but the Romans, as well as other armies of the time, to do anything they could to gain an advantage over other, the other army that they were fighting would often take hundreds of small sticks and sharpen them to like a pencil point, razor sharp on the top, and they would bury these hundreds of sticks in the ground with just an inch or so, just the point, sticking through the earth. And then they would bury them either in an area that was covered with grass so they couldn't be easily seen, a large open field across which their enemy might run in advance, or they would hide them beneath leaves. But one way or the other, they would hide these, these hundreds of sharp sticks beneath the surface.

The soldiers would come running toward their lines and of course, if their footwear wasn't sufficient, those points would pierce up through the sandals they were wearing into the foot injuring the soldier, crippling him - a wounded soldier who can't walk, can't fight. Often in those days, they would also, those wounds would lead to infection where they would lose more than just a few days of fighting. They would lose the limb, sometimes even their lives from the infection that would come as a result. So, to avoid falling prey to their own tactics, Roman soldiers wore sandals that had soles at least three quarters of an inch thick of several layers of hardened leather.

But by far the most important function of the Roman sandal was not mobility. It was not protection. By far, the most important function was stability, stability. Remember the primary mode of warfare in the first century? It was (what?) hand to hand combat. Yes, the Romans had distance weapons. You've seen pictures. You've heard about their large machines. You've heard about the Roman javelins and the arrows and all of those things, but other armies, like the Romans, had shields - we're going to study the shield coming up here shortly. And those shields would often protect them from those distance weapons, so, they didn't have to worry a lot about that. Most of the fighting, and most of the victory was done in hand-to-hand combat. Many a soldier died because in the heat of the battle, his slippery sandals failed him. He lost his footing, lost his advantage and therefore lost his life.

So, the Romans created what was really the ancient forerunner not of our modern army boots, but really of our modern athletic cleats. On the bottom of every Roman soldier's sandal, historians tell us, were several dozen large dome-shaped nails. They were either dome-shaped like our cleats, or in some cases they were shaped like spikes, like nails pointing downward. In fact, Josephus described some Roman soldiers' shoes as "thickly studded with sharp nails." They ensured a good grip. It gave stability to the soldier as he fought in hand-to-hand combat. He wasn't going to lose his footing and therefore lose the tactical advantage on the battlefield.

This is what is in Paul's mind as he writes this passage. I mean, how many times in this very passage does Paul tell us to stand firm? Look at verse 11. I want you to "be able (he says) to stand firm against the schemes of the devil." Verse 13, I want you to "be able to resist (the devil), and having done everything, to stand firm." Verse 14, "Stand firm therefore." It's absolutely imperative if we are going to win in the spiritual battle in which we are engaged that we have stable feet - that is, we don't lose our balance in the midst of the fight. If a Roman soldier was going to stand firm as he fought, he needed his "caligae". If you and I are going to have the stability we need for hand-to-hand combat, (and remember that really means in our minds), the battle between God and Satan is fought in the minds of man. It is ideas.

Every idea that hits your mind comes either from God or from Satan. Every, every thought has its ultimate source in either God or Satan. You think no original thoughts nor do I. And every thought that enters our mind with which we are confronted, day in and day out, has its source either in God or in Satan. And that's the battle that's waging for our souls. If you and I are going to have the stability we need for that kind of hand-to-hand combat, for standing against those attacks of Satan and his forces, we need the right shoes.

Let me ask you. Do you want to be able to stand strong when Satan attacks with some perversion of God's Word? Do you want to be able to stand strong when he intimidates you or tries to with fear or persecution? Maybe somebody makes fun of you for your faith at work or at school. You want to stand firm when he comes to you with various personally tailored temptations, temptations designed to trip you up, to destroy you? Listen, you and I can only gain that kind of stability by putting on the right shoes.

When I was growing up, for many years, I had only two pairs of shoes. Now there were a couple of reasons for that. One was I was number ten in a large family and one of the things that can't be passed down very well is shoes. So, I got what we could afford. But there was another reason for it. Just practically, I didn't really need anything else. I mean in those days, I had a pair of dress shoes for Sunday which that was always an imperative around my household and secondly, I had a pair of Converse tennis shoes. Now, I hate to tell you teenagers that I was wearing Converse when I was your age. They were still popular then. But I had a pair of Converse, and I went through them, if my parents are telling me the truth, I went through a pair about every two months. And we'd go back to the department store and have to, and I don't mean because I was growing, I meant because I was unintentionally destructive. And so we'd go, I went through these shoes one after the other.

Today though, it's not like that. You look at a typical teenager's or young adult's closet and things are much more specialized. You have tennis shoes that are just for tennis by the way. And then you have basketball shoes, and you have football cleats, and you have baseball cleats, and you have soccer cleats. And none of those are to be mixed; you can't like cross over. There are, however, cross-trainers which you can get which would allow you to do that. There are running shoes – shoes intended solely for running. We even have walking shoes. Now have you ever thought about how silly that is? I mean, regardless of what the shoe's for, it's for walking, but anyway.

Paul wants us to know here that if we're going to be successful in the Christian life, we must have the right fighting shoes. Notice what he says, verse 15, "having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace." Notice first that participle translated "having shod". It's a word that means to tie or bind beneath. It's used only in the Bible of putting on footwear, putting on shoes. Just briefly, there are a couple of implications that sort of spring out at me from this verbal, this participle, this "–ing" form. One is, it modifies the main verb of the sentence. What's the main verb? That's back in verse 14 – stand firm. It tells us how we can stand firm against Satan's tactics – by having shod our feet in the right way. So, here's how to stand firm. You want to stand firm? Here's how you do it.

This verbal also reminds us that although this is Christ's own personal armor that He's given to us and we've talked about that in the past, there is still something we have to do. We have to put it on. Although this armor has been made available to you, Christian, it's not going to protect you unless you put it on. In the context, putting on this armor means understanding the concept and applying that concept to ourselves. Only then will it provide the protection God intends it to provide. So, you have to think. You have to do something. You have to understand these concepts and seek to apply them for them to be protection for you.

So, with that brief introduction to it, what exactly are these shoes that are going to protect us? Paul says put on the preparation of the gospel. Now what does that mean? The Greek word translated "preparation" can mean either preparation as it's translated here or readiness. The question is preparation or readiness to do what with the gospel? I need to be ready to do what with the gospel? Well, there historically have been two interpretations of what this means. And all of church history has sort of lined up on one side or the other.

The first view of this means you ought to be ready or prepared to share the gospel, to proclaim the gospel. The argument goes if you're going to really protect yourself from Satan, then you need to go on the offense. You need to start sharing the gospel. You need to be ready to share the gospel, and that'll protect you. This view really comes from the fact that you'll notice verse 15 is in all caps or a lot of it is. It's probably a loose reference to Isaiah 52:7. Listen to Isaiah 52:7.

"How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation, and says to Zion, 'Your God reigns!'" In its context, it's portraying Christ as coming and announcing the gospel, announcing the good news. Then in Romans 10:15, Paul uses that same reference from Isaiah to talk about us presenting and proclaiming the gospel. So, those who take this view said therefore it must mean that here as well. It must be about proclaiming the gospel. Be ready. Be prepared to proclaim the gospel.

There's a second view, a second interpretation. And this view says no, it's not about being ready to proclaim the gospel. It's being ready or prepared to stand firm in the battle with Satan. Now clearly, you can see immediately that fits the context better because this passage is not talking about evangelism. It's talking about fighting Satan. This passage is not talking about proclaiming the gospel. It's talking about standing firm against Satan's attacks. Harold Hoehner writes,

"This verse does not speak of the spreading of the gospel for Christians are pictured as standing, not advancing. Instead, this refers to a believer's stability or surefootedness from the gospel which gives him peace which enables him to stand in the battle."

There's another argument. Not only the context argues for this second view, but also the way this word is used in the Old Testament, specifically in the Septuagint, in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. There it's used seven times. Most of those times it's used of a foundation. Let me just give you two examples. Ezra 3:3, "They set up the altar on its foundation (that's the word preparation)." Psalm 89:14, "Righteousness and justice are the foundation (there's our word) of Your throne." So, listen carefully. Putting all that together, the idea of verse 15 is having the right shoes that will give us a firm, stable foundation from which to fight. Be prepared to stand firm.

What are these shoes that will enable us to keep our sure footing when Satan attacks? Let me define it for you as I have done with each part of the armor. The shoes of the gospel refers to a growing confidence in the personal implications of the gospel of peace. Let me say that again - a growing confidence in the personal implications of the gospel of peace. Verse 15, "having shod your feet with the preparation (or the firm foundation) of the gospel." Now that's shocking to many Christians because it means that the gospel is for more than just our initial salvation. Understanding and applying the benefits of the gospel is absolutely crucial in our battle with sin and our battle with temptation and our battle with Satan.

Let me show this to you. Look over at Romans 1. You ever wondered why Paul writes his most thorough description of the gospel to a church, to Christians? Romans 1, notice how he describes the people to whom he writes this letter. Verse 6, he says, "you are the called of Jesus Christ." You have been effectually called. You are saints. Verse 7, "you are beloved of God." You have received God's grace and therefore His peace and God is your Father and Jesus Christ is your Lord." These are Christians. Now notice what he says in verse 15. "So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you who also are in Rome." Why? Because the gospel not only is what we need for our initial salvation, but a deeper understanding of it is essential to our growth, our spiritual upbuilding. Notice the end of verse 13. He wants to obtain some spiritual fruit among them. This is absolutely essential.

We're not talking, by the way, about what happens, as you've all experienced probably, in a lot of churches where there's sort of a shallow presentation of the gospel on Sunday to the Christians that are gathered there. That's not what's going to give you stability. Instead, it is a deeper understanding of all of the truths of what God did when He saved you. That's what's going to give you stability, sure footing.

Let me ask it this way. What is the central issue in the gospel? What is the main thing God's trying to do in the gospel? You ask the average Christian that, and they will say it's about forgiveness of sins. It's so God can forgive me. That's the good news. No, that's not really the full good news. That's merely a means to the end. The end is, here's the central issue in the gospel, it's that God and you can be reconciled. That's the heart of the gospel. Man is a sinner, and our sin makes us God's enemy.

That happened the very first sin. You remember? You go back to the first chapters of Genesis. Adam and Eve walked with the second person of the Trinity, a pre-incarnate appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Garden every day. They enjoyed fellowship with God every day. And then you come to Genesis 3. They sin and what happens? What's the very first thing that happens? Alienation and hostility toward God - they go and do what? Hide. They hide from God. They were alienated from God. Now all of us by nature do that instinctively. Apart from divine grace, that's how we all are. We are all hostile toward God. We are all rebellious against God. We put other gods in His place. We make ourselves His enemies.

You say well, I've never thought of myself as making God my enemy. Well, listen to what God says in James, "… do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes (we're talking about what goes on in the heart, whoever wishes) to be a friend of the world (we're not talking about a people here, we're talking about the system that Satan has created – driven by lust and lust for the flesh and lust for possessions and pride of life, ambition. If you love that system, James says, if you wish to be a friend of that system), you make yourself an enemy of God." See, you don't have to sit there and say, "I'm God's enemy. I want to be God's enemy." All you have to do is wish to be friends with what's already God's enemy.

But the worst news isn't that we're God's enemies. It's that God is our enemy. There are so many places in Scripture that make that clear. Before grace, before Christ, before God intervened in our lives, we were God's enemies. He was our enemy. Listen to Romans 5:10. Paul couldn't put it any clearer. He says before Christ, we were enemies. Not any clearer than that, is it? We were enemies. And we were only waiting, Romans 5:9, for God's wrath to break loose, for Him to deal with us as He really needed to deal with us and as we deserved.

What we needed was reconciliation. We were hostile. We were enemies. We needed peace. In light of this huge problem, the Old Testament begins to predict that there's going to come One who will bring that peace. You remember in Isaiah's prophecy, 9:6, he calls Jesus the One who will come, the Prince of Peace. He's going to bring that peace.

And when you come to the New Testament, very quickly you see that it is, in fact, Jesus of Nazareth who's going to bring that peace. You remember even what the angels said in Luke 2 when they spoke to the shepherds there in the field outside of Bethlehem on the night of His birth? Verse 14 of Luke 2, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace." On earth peace – He's going to bring peace. This child will procure peace with God, the cessation of the hostilities - reconciliation. No longer will we be God's enemies.

And who will get that peace? Those who are truly His subjects – "peace among men with whom He is pleased." When the angels announced peace on earth, they weren't talking about world peace although that will come under Jesus' rule someday. They were talking about individual peace with God. Jesus Christ has provided that peace. This is the central message of the gospel.

When Peter, you remember in Acts 10, shows up at Cornelius' house, listen to how he describes Jesus' message in verse 36. "The word which He sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ...." He came preaching peace. The war's over. You can be reconciled to God. The God who was your enemy, can become your adoptive Father. In Ephesians 2, we're told that (you remember studying it together), that Jesus is our peace. Our peace is in a Person, a Person who reconciled us to God. That's the central message of the gospel - the good news of reconciliation. The hostility is over and now with, there is mutual acceptance and genuine friendship. And in fact, one step further, God who was our enemy has become our Father.

Now, that's what Paul means by the gospel of peace. The question is how does, that objective peace with God, how does that function like armor for our souls? Well, just as the Roman soldiers' pleated sandals provided stability allowing him to withstand the enemy's attack, the only stable footing we have for our battle with Satan is understanding and applying the gospel's greatest benefit, which is peace with God. This is what'll give you stability in the midst of trials, in the midst of temptation.

Let me be more practical with it. Let me ask it this way. How can you today put on the shoes of the gospel of peace? How can you do this? Here it is. Remind yourself that the gospel has secured objective peace with God. Remind yourself in the middle of temptation, in the middle of trial, that the gospel has secured peace with God. Isn't that what Paul says in Romans 5:1? After he finishes all of that about justification by faith, he says, "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God…." Think about that. Paul says that's the greatest benefit of our salvation. We have peace with God. God's no longer our enemy. He's not just our friend. He's our Father.

Look over at Colossians 1. How did, how did God do this? How did God bring about this reconciliation? Colossians 1:20. Look at verse 19, "it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness (that is, the fullness of deity) to dwell in Christ (Christ was both fully God, fully man), and through Christ (verse 20) to reconcile all things to Himself." Here's how He was going to do it. It was going to be through a Person, the One who is our peace, Jesus Christ. And specifically, verse 20 says, "He made peace through the blood of His cross." In other words, it was through Jesus' death that this peace was made possible. We can only have peace with God because God made it possible to be reconciled with us by punishing our sin in Jesus and then declaring us righteous with His righteousness.

If I'm going to remain stable under Satan's attacks, I must constantly remind myself of the reality that God is at peace with me. I may be at war with Satan, but not with God. Now why is that important? Well, I can tell you this. If you're a Christian, you've experienced this as I have. In the middle of trials, right now maybe you find yourself in the middle of some real difficulty, some real trouble or when we fail God, when we sin, when we give in to temptation, Satan comes, and he accuses us. And one of his chief tactics is to try to convince us that God is still our enemy and not our Father - that nothing has really changed. You ever been tempted to think like that? I think if you're a Christian, you have. You understand that. You understand that sense of weight, and I've let my Father down. I've let my God and Provider down. I can't believe I've done that. And Satan comes and takes that moment to make us think that we must still be God's enemy.

Or you find yourself in the middle of a really serious trial, and it's hard not to think why. Where's this coming from? Why would God allow this? And you begin to think, if you're not careful, in a downward spiral, and Satan begins to say, "Hmm. Maybe this is an indication that you're really not right with God." Now obviously, you need to ask that question. And if you're not, if you don't know God, or you're living in a pattern of unrepentant sin, you need to deal with that, but often, there's not even that. There's just this general sense of discouragement.

Charles Hodge writes, "All doubt tends to weakness, and despair is death." When Satan can get us to doubt our relationship to God, can get us to doubt God's good heart toward us; that He's for us as Paul says in Romans 8; that He's changed from being our enemy into our Father, then he's won a great success because that leads to weakness, and he's got an advantage over us at that moment. Satan comes to us in the moment of our weakness when we're in the middle of a trial, when we've given in to temptation. And at that moment, he tells us, "God has set Himself against you. He is still your enemy. You are under His wrath." When that happens, you must stand firm against that attack with confidence in the gospel that proclaims peace between your soul and God. "There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus." Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. That's putting on the shoes that'll keep you stable in the middle of that attack.

We're talking about a sense of assurance, a sense of confidence, a sense of being at peace with God. Lloyd-Jones writes, "If I am in doubt about my salvation, I shall not be able to fight the enemy. I shall have to spend the whole of my time struggling with myself. The Christian must be clear about his relationship to God."

And here's the really good news. We're talking here not about some feeling. We're talking about objective peace with God, the reality that the war is over. He was my enemy. He's no longer my enemy. He's now my Father and I His son, His daughter. But when that's true, then I can also have an internal heart of peace. I can have a feeling of peace because I know that I'm right with God. I know that regardless of the circumstances, I am at peace with God. And because of that, I know He's in control, I know that He will use even the trial or temptation for my spiritual good.

And so, it gives me spiritual stability in the midst of every trial and every temptation. You see, the gospel gives us peace with God. And because of that, the gospel then delivers the peace of God to our hearts. And Paul says we must arm ourselves with a growing confidence in the personal implications of the gospel that declares peace with God.

Let's pray together.

Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for this magnificent analogy of the apostle Paul. Lord, we praise You that we who once were Your enemies are now your friends, that we who once stood against You, You have now reconciled through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and His cross.

Father, help us in the middle of the battle when we find ourselves under attack either through trial or through temptation, through attacks on Your Word. Lord, whatever it is, help us to remain stable, to have sure footing, by reminding ourselves that the good news declares we're at peace with You – that we may be at war with Satan, but we're at peace with You. And Lord, may that give us spiritual stability in the middle of the fight.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.