Sermon File

In the Name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord and Savior sanctify you in the truth, for His word is truth. Amen

The Twentieth-First Sunday after Trinity (2025)

Clothe Yourself with the Whole of God’s Armor                                                           Rev. Toby Byrd

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” (Ephesians 6:10, ESV) 

St. Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, reminds us, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Galatians 3:27, ESV) St. Paul reiterates this truth in his letter to the congregation at Ephesus, by reminding them that in their baptism they put on Christ as they were recruited to be warriors for God’s kingdom. Saying to them, stand strong and Clothe Yourself with the Whole of God’s Armor. Therefore, just as they, you too have been baptized into Christ, and therefore you have had Christ poured out upon you. In those blessed waters God robed you in the righteousness of His Holy Son, Jesus Christ, making you not only spiritually strong, but by the very presence of Christ and the Holy Spirit dwelling in you since your Baptism, God has enabled you to stand strong for Him, to “be strong in the Lord.” However, it is not by your own strength that you may stand strong, it is only by availing yourself of the strength which God gave you in Christ Jesus. Again, St. Paul reminds us of what he said to the church at Corinth when he wrote that Christ said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Like St. Paul, the power of Christ is made perfect in you during your moments of weakness. In those moments you can take great solace in these words from St. Paul, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9–10, ESV) When I am weak, I am strong!

The Church is in constant warfare with evil spirits. St. Paul tells us, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12, ESV) As warriors for Christ, we war against evil, spiritual forces!

St. John tells us that Satan, and his demons were thrown down upon the earth after St. Micheal and his angels defeated him, and the Scriptures cry out, “Woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” (Revelation 12:12, ESV) His time is short, for soon Christ will return and lock Satan and his demons into the lake of fire and sulfur to suffer for all eternity (Rev. 20:10). But until that day, Satan is loose to terrorize and make war on the Body of Christ, baptized believers in Christ Jesus. And this he is doing every day. Therefore, you have been called, baptized, and recruited to be a warrior in Christ’s holy army. Christian soldiers, taking up the battle for the souls of men while Satan roams this earth looking for those whom he can devour. You are called to shelter the souls of men from being consumed by the voracious appetite of Satan, sheltering them in Christ’s victory over Satan, that victory He won by His atoning sacrifice on the Altar of the Cross.

As a baptized child of God, you have been recruited to be a warrior for Him, a front-line trooper in this battle against Satan and his demons. But if you rely on your own defense to engage in this battle, you will be vanquished in your first moments of combat. Therefore, you need additional help, you need armor that is designed to fight Satan and his evil forces, armor that is designed not only to protect God’s warrior while you engage in the good war of faith, but armor that will defeat the enemy and save his victims.

The enemy comes at you in many ways, but none more so than through the corruption of the world. St. John reminds you, “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” (1 John 5:19, ESV) Therefore, you must rely on your faith while coping with the world. If the world is to be more Christian, you must be more Christlike. Only as your faith is personal can it become national. Again, St. John says, “Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:5, ESV) “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” (1 John 5:4, ESV) If you, as a baptized child of God, desire to remain vertical in a world that is fast going horizontal, your faith in Christ Jesus must be steadfast, a faith based solely on the atoning sacrifice of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and the sins of the world. A faith which looks to and relies on the object of faith, our Savior Jesus Christ. A faith that overcomes the day.

Therefore, as a baptized child of God, you know that the chief enemy of Christ and His Church, and thus every individual Christian, is the devil and his hosts of evil angels. Therefore, it is against Satan against whom your spiritual defense is to be raised. A defense that will withstand any danger the world and Satan may throw at you. Moreover, this defense is the defense that God has given you, His weapons by which you may fight the good fight of faith.

St. Paul has said, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” (v 10) With these opening remarks in our Epistle Reading for today, St. Paul strikes a virile, brave note: power, strength, and might. So, Christians dare never be weaklings. Christians are baptized into Christ, and thereby, they have put on Christ (Gal. 3:27). As such, you are plugged into the Almighty, and thereby you can draw on the unfailing resources of heaven and apply these to your daily life and in your Christian defense of others.

Undoubtedly, to cope with the enemy, one must know who the enemy is, what his tactics and strategies are. To do so, St. Paul tells you to “take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” (Ephesians 6:13, ESV) St. Paul, like Jesus, had an intense awareness of the personal character of the power of evil in the world. He recognized that evil had an organized strategy. He knew the power of supernatural evil, and he was emphatic regarding the reality of “the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12, ESV) St. Paul believed in a devil who was a real evil being. Thus, St. Paul commanded the Ephesians to find their strength not in themselves, but in God, in the power of His boundless resources. He says, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand, to successfully resist Satan and his attacks upon yourself and the Body of Christ. This my friends, is your calling, to Clothe Yourself with the Whole of God’s Armor that you might be a true warrior for Christ

Now notice, St. Paul is not saying you shall only stand strong for yourself. That is, to fight only for yourself armored by Christ in your daily struggles against your flesh, the world, and Satan. No, just as importantly, you have been armored and enabled to stand strong for the Body of Christ, the Church, and for the defenseless who are not of the church. You are to be a warrior for the Gospel, a warrior who seeks to rescue others from their enslavement to sin, a warrior enabled by God’s grace to stand against the schemes of the devil and his intent of enslaving the Church and the world. Furthermore, since you have been called to be this warrior through the blessed waters of Baptism, God provides you with His protection Clothing You with the Whole of His Armor.

But you might ask, “How, have I been made a warrior for Christ by my Baptism? I sure don’t feel like a warrior!” Well let’s examine some of the wonderful blessings you received in the waters of Baptism. 

Through Baptism, you were chosen to be one of Christ’s elect: to be holy, faithful, and blameless before God. In those blessed waters you were adopted as a child of God, to be an heir with Christ. In Baptism, because of Christ’s Baptism and His blood shed for your forgiveness, you received the forgiveness of your sins. Baptism granted you eternal life, as you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. Furthermore, St. Paul reminds you that in Baptism the old Adam in you was drowned and you were reborn, reborn a new person, a child of God, re-created in God’s image, adorned with His Son’s righteousness that you may walk in His love forgiving one another. Having now been awakened and enlightened by the Spirit of God, you may stand strong as a disciple of Christ proclaiming the blessings of His Gospel to a world dying of sin, eager to invite others to share in the life you now live, life as a child of God, life as a Baptized Warrior of Christ. So, you have been outfitted with all you need to take up take up the whole armor of God, to become a soldier for Christ.

As a soldier of Christ, a Christian, you are a warrior engaged in active combat with a powerful enemy. Moreover, this combat is not a friendly one, such as a tennis match. Nor is it an encounter with thugs or robbers. It is a struggle with “unseen forces” and “spiritual evil.” So, you fight with an invisible opponent, which makes your fight all the more soul-racking. Your fight is one that is face-to-face with “spirits, and “evil angels,” of whom every sinew, thought, and design is saturated with evil. These are powerful enemies because they are spirits of great number, strength, and seemingly inexhaustible reinforcements in hell. Furthermore, they are very resourceful, disguising themselves as angels of light. Moreover, the devil is not an honest adversary, challenging you to a fare fight. No, he is sneaky, he lies in ambush, spying out your weak points, and making his stealthy assaults sudden. He is smooth-tongued and deceitful, using arguments meant to hide his true intention. The devil is a spirit, and this fact makes him dangerous, for he can go anywhere and disguise himself as anyone. His favorites hiding places are in the heart of men, and in the church, but he can also be found in business, education, politics, the home, and the community. When Jesus once asked an evil spirit in a man “What is your name?” the spirit answered, “My name is Legion, for we are many” (Mark 5:9, ESV).

Our Lord Jesus called Satan, the “ruler of this world” (John 16:11, ESV) So, Satan is not a pretender, he is not doll-king, rather, he is a ruthless ruler. He has absolute sway in his realm. Sadly, many people in our world will not accept the existence of the devil. They call him, “the product of the ignorance of primitive man.” But Scripture assures us, the devil exists, and the world is his realm where he can and does muster millions of demonic warriors against Christ and His Church.

Satan revels in the destruction, devastation, and torture of men. So, Christianity is not to be confused with some peaceful “opiate for the people.” Christianity is not a withdrawal from life’s struggles. True enough, symbols of rest and peace have their place Christian art, for Christ brings these to us, but because those symbols are constantly under attack by an old evil foe, symbols of war and battle are quite appropriate. Truth is, our lives are lives of learning through tragedy and pain, lessons revealing that the powers of evil are far more formidable than a world of peaceful existence. Thus, in light of such struggles, in the reality of such a destructive, invisible foe, we need the whole armor of God to protect ourselves and our neighbor.

So, again, the apostle Paul tells you to, “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” (Ephesians 6:10, ESV) Yes, be strong, but forget it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is Lord over Satan. It is only through His strength that you can take the offensive! Luther, in his famous hymn, A Mighty Fortress is our God, wrote:

Ask ye, Who is this?
Jesus Christ it is,
    Of Sabaoth Lord,
    And there’s none other God;
He holds the field forever. (LSB 656:2)

Our Lord Jesus is not only the weapon for our defense, but also for our offense.

As a baptized child of God, you are never to be satisfied in marking time, shrouded in some fancied security behind the bulwarks of the Church. On the contrary, the strategy of war demands attack. The Christian army must awaken to the need of bringing the battle to the enemy. Moreover, the Christian soldier is equipped to attack evil wherever it is found, and the devil makes it easy to find him, for he is a roaring lion seeking his prey and you are always open to his attack and deception. Therefore, be prepared to defend yourself and your neighbor. Be duly armed to keep the enemy in check.

As a baptized child of God, you were blessed by God as He gave you a new life in those blessed waters. He made you a new person, a person of truth, His truth, and in those blessed waters you were given His “belt of truth,” His holy Word, a belt which made you ready, bracing you for the fight. A belt to be worn as a coat of arms. The belt of a Christian believer. As such, you were given the gift of absolute sincerity, wholeheartedness, and unreserved devotion to the cause for which you were called, to become a soldier of Jesus Christ. This is an important weapon as you engage the enemy Satan and his evil forces. As a baptized child of God, you depend on the belt of truth, the truth of God’s Word to unify your life and prepare you for battle.

In your baptism you were robed with Christ righteousness, thus you are encased with righteousness, the righteousness of Christ. This is God’s breastplate that protects your heart. As a baptized child of God, you cannot engage in a successful spiritual struggle unless you possess a heart that is right in the Lord. Filled with the integrity of the Holy Spirit, you freely admit your sinfulness, your personal unworthiness, while encasing yourself in the merit and righteousness of Christ. For by His obedience unto death you have forgiveness of your sins, and you stand accepted before God. You have no righteousness of your own, but Christ’s righteousness protects you on all sides, saving you from sin, death, and the devil.

As a baptized child of God, you put off your old self, and you put on the new, this includes new shoes of readiness for the gospel of peace. Satan desires nothing more than to make the way of a Christian rough and hard. A roadway filled with rocks and obstacles. But, having been shod with the shoes of readiness, you can adapt in all circumstances. With the shoes of readiness, you can walk beside still waters, and trudge over jagged rocks and rough mountain trails of the wilderness preparing the way of the Lord (Luke 3:4). The blessedness and peace of the Gospel compel you to go anywhere the Gospel is needed. With these new shoes, you can, “run with endurance the race that is set before” (Hebrews 12:1, ESV) you. 

Furthermore, you were given the shield of faith in those blessed waters of Baptism. St. Peter in his sermon on that first Pentecost Sunday said to those were convicted of their sin, who asked, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37, ESV) said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38, ESV) In your Baptism you received the gift of the Holy Spirit, of whom St. Paul says, “No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3, ESV) Moreover, he said, “But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);” (Romans 10:8, ESV) Thus, I ask, what says Jesus is Lord except faith. Faith in the word of Christ, the Gospel, that divine message which says to the world, “Your sins are forgiven for the sake of God’s only Son who gave His life on the tree of the cross for the forgiveness of your sins.” Baptism is pure Gospel; in those blessed waters you were baptized by the Spirit and the Word of God. That Word you heard as the water poured over you. Thus, St. Paul can say, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17, ESV) Furthermore, St. Paul says to the church at Colossae, “having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:12–14, ESV) Yes, my friends, because of your Baptism, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the gift of faith in which you were raised, you possess the shield of faith “with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;” (Ephesians 6:16, ESV)

As a baptized child of God, you have been outfitted with the helmet of salvation. In those blessed waters you were given the gift of faith to believe in the Gospel, in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and life everlasting. Therefore, you can hold fast to the words of St. Paul, who said, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. (Romans 1:16, ESV) Baptism is Gospel, a Gospel Means of Grace, and in those waters your sins were forgiven, and thereby, you received the helmet of salvation. That my friends, is Gospel. That my friends, is the Christian hope, a living hope, because the power of Jesus Christ is greater than the power of the adversary. The helmet of salvation is necessary Gospel armor, for Satan is always trying to deceive you into misbelief and doubt, challenging your salvation, and without the hope of your personal salvation, you could never stand against the devil. The helmet of salvation reminds you; Christ has won the victory, defeating Satan on the Altar of the Cross, opening heaven for all who believe. Therefore, your fight is continuing our Lord’s victory, bringing His victory to a world still dying from sin and unbelief, a world, although offered freedom in Christ, remains enslaved to Satan. Your fight is the fight of faith, a fight which hopes that all will come to know the victory of Christ over Satan for the forgiveness of their sins.

As a baptized child of God, you have the sword of the Spirit, for you received the Holy Spirit, who carries the sword, in those blessed waters of Baptism (Acts 2:38). There is no more powerful force on earth. Everything must yield to the Word of God. But to be effective, a sword cannot remain in its scabbard to rust, it must be drawn and used. Its edge is meant to cut. Satan never dreads an unused Bible. But God’s inspired, written Word is the Bible, and it has a cutting edge, as the writer to the Hebrews says, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12, ESV) We cannot fight against Satan with the words of men but only with the Word of God. Therefore, the baptized child of God, the Christian warrior, armed with the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, can cut his way through the tangle of a sinful world. When you, as a baptized child of God, learn to take and use rightly, God’s everlasting Word, trusting it with confidence, your victory is certain.

However, for this victory the Christians must venture their lives, as the Scriptures say, “they loved not their lives even unto death.” (Revelation 12:11, ESV) Therefore, you must firmly and steadfastly continue as a Christian soldier, actively living the faith and testimony of Christ Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, knowing that day will come when Satan will be completely cast out through the strength and the victory of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To this end all the Scriptures point, for all things have to do with the Son of God, who for our sake was made man so that Satan would be, “conquered . . . by the blood of the Lamb.” Moreover, we look forward to His joyful return, to His coming again, so that the world can brought out of this war of faith into the eternal safety and glory of the blessed vision of the Resurrected Christ. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

May the Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.