The Whole Armour of God Part 3

VI. “And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;” (EPH 6:15). ct/w ROM 3:15-17. A. Our attention is now turned to the first portion of Christian armour that covers an active part of the body in forwarding the warfare: the feet. 1. With truth and righteousness going before, the saint is directed to the gospel. 2. The feet are to be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Truth and righteousness are appropriate to prepare us to advance this gospel of peace. 3. O.T. Israel was to eat the exodus Passover “...with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste...” (EXO 12:11). a. Their deliverance from death demanded immediate readiness of motion away from the place of bondage. b. Our partaking of Christ should similarly demand readiness with good news. 1PE 3:15. c. We are called not to sit, but walk in the Spirit (GAL 5:16) and run with patience the race that is set before us (HEB 12:1). In so doing, we “...press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (PHIL 3:14). This is lively faith with works. JAM 2:18. 4. Mark that the feet are to be shod, not just a foot. a. This differs from the tenets of Freemasonry which calls its initiates to enter into its embraces with one shod foot, which implies some kind of duality. b. For the Christian, it is not a matter of walking with one foot in the things of God and the other still in the world. c. Both feet had best be shod with the gospel, lest the saint be hobbled by some thorny messenger of Satan. c/w 2CO 12:7. d. One need not be overcome by the gainsaying briers, thorns and scorpions of unbelief if properly shod/prepared with the gospel. EZE 2:6 c/w 2TI 2:15; TIT 1:9. e. One who is overcome by the thorns of life is probably not shod. MAT 13:22. B. Proclaiming the gospel makes for beautiful feet. ISA 52:7. C. preparation: The action of preparing, or condition of being prepared; previous putting or setting in order for any action or purpose; making or getting ready; fitting out, equipment. 1. Preparation implies fitting for a test. 2. The test may come in the form of a doctrinal test, for which there is no substitute for a well-informed mind. PRO 15:28; 2TI 2:15; ACT 6:8-10. 3. The test may come in the form of a temptation to sin, for which there is no substitute for a well-exercised heart. PSA 119:11, 133. D. Among other things, the gospel is meant for comfort. ISA 61:1-3; ROM 15:4. 1. A comfortable pair of shoes makes the tasks and trials of life more bearable. 2. The gospel’s comforts carry us through the valley of the shadow of death. PSA 23:4 c/w 1TH 4:13-18. 3. Avoid cheaply made knock-offs like the RV, ESV, NIV, etc. which don’t have the infallible proofs of Christ’s resurrection seen in a KJV. ACT 1:3. E. The feet are useful for standing, walking, running, leaping. 1. The gospel enables one to stand fast and strong for salvation. 1CO 15:1-2; GAL 5:1. 2. The gospel is tailor-made for walking in the light for fellowship and cleansing. IJO 1:6-7 c/w PSA 119:1-3. 3. The gospel fits our feet to “...run with patience the race that is set before us” (HEB 12:1), providing we keep the proper shoes on and laced up. GAL 1:6. 4. The gospel fits us for leaping for joy in the face of persecution or reproaches. LUK 6:22-23. F. It is the gospel or good news of peace. 1. The good news is not focusing on universal peace among men. LUK 12:51-52. 2. The good news is that through Christ, peace has been established between God and men. ISA 53:5 c/w COL 1:20. 3. The gospel does declare that Christ established peace between men in the sense that He took away the barrier that separated elect Jews and Gentiles. EPH 2:14-16. 4. There is peace that comes via the gospel. a. There is peace in the soul through surrender to the Great King. You give up and give in through submission to Jesus Christ via the gospel which convicts you, then further instructs you. MAT 11:28-30. b. There is peace in the soul in realizing that one’s sin has been put away forever because of God’s love in Jesus Christ. ROM 8:38-39. G. It is the gospel of peace. 1. It is not the gospel of works-salvation which advocates an impossible scheme of “do and live” for eternal life. GAL 3:10. 2. It is not the gospels of Arminianism or Campbellism which advocate that Christ did not in fact fully establish peace between God and His elect through the blood of His cross and which affirm that the child of God can lose his eternal life. What peace is there for the soul in that? 3. It is not the gospel of the likes of a C. I. Scofield which essentially still has a middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, there being two gospels and two ways of eternal reconciliation to God: grace for the Gentile; repentance for the Jew. But see ACT 15:7-11; 26:20. 4. It is not the barrier-building gospel of Christian Identity which promotes a racial salvation instead of a “gracial” salvation. But see ACT 17:26; JOH 1:12-13. H. Consider the relationship of the gospel of peace to the other pieces of armour. 1. The gospel of peace is not independent of the truth. a. Without the truth, the gospel is no gospel at all! b. Without the truth, the gospel (according to one school of thought) actually becomes the instrument of damnation for once heaven-bound people. After all, if infants and benighted heathen are mercifully saved through God’s grace unless they finally hear the gospel and reject it, the gospel is certainly not one of peace to them! c. Peace that does not accord with truth is a false peace, such as the false prophets of Jeremiah’s day proclaimed (JER 6:14), or the peace of this world (JOH 14:27) which would compromise truth for peace’s sake, or the peace offered by the psychiatrist who tells his client that his internal unrest is best solved by denying the reality of sin. d. Peace without truth is like a tropical island without fresh water: warm, comfy, fatal. 2. The gospel of peace is not independent of righteousness, as noted earlier. ISA 32:17; JAM 3:17. a. Peace without righteousness nailed Jesus Christ to a cross. JOH 11:48; MAT 27:24. b. Peace without righteousness is only the calm before a storm. 1TH 5:3. c. Peace without righteousness is like sleep brought on by sloth or drink (PRO 19:15; 23:35): deceptive, destructive and the precursor to a rude awakening. 3. The gospel of peace is not independent of faith. a. Without faith, troubles or obstacles rob us of peace. LUK 8:25. b. Faith is the countermeasure of a troubled heart. JOH 14:1. c. The man of faith finds a peace that no other knows. ISA 26:3. d. The gospel of peace can only be truly embraced by faith: faith that Christ’s work was sufficient to save all of His elect for all time, faith that His grace is greater than our sin, faith that He will supply all our needs according to His riches in glory, faith that He will not suffer us to be tempted beyond our ability to resist and bear, faith that there is life after death, faith that there is a better world to come. 4. The gospel of peace is not independent of the hope of salvation. a. The hope of salvation is what anchors the soul when storms of vengeance try to blow away our peace. HEB 6:18-19. b. The hope of the future salvation at the resurrection can even give us peace when death takes away loved ones in Christ. 1TH 4:13-14. c. As before, if there is no hope of final salvation, “...let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die” (1CO 15:32). We might as well go after the fleeting, ephemeral peace of this world. d. If our feet are shod, but our head not protected with the helmet of salvation, our minds may be filled with all manner of doubts and discouragements and our running will be in vain. We will wear out our “peace” shoes. e. Peace without hope is like a condemned man trying to sleep the night before his execution. 5. The gospel of peace is not independent of the Sword of the Spirit: Scripture. PSA 119:165; PRO 3:1-2.