Soldier No.5 The Gospel Shoes

Number five in the series on the Christian soldier entitled the gospel shoes part two on side b of your cassette comes number six the shield of faith if you think we're going to read from Ephesians in chapter six you're right before then just a couple of verses from exodus in exodus chapter 12 here are instructions given to the Israelites as they were about to leave Egypt and gladly they were wanting to get out of that country of bondage and slavery and so uh Moses gives them some commanders to have to prepare for the events after the Passover exodus 12 and verse 11 this is how you are to eat it with your cloak tucked under or into your belt your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand eat it in haste it is the Lord's Passover incredibly at the end or getting towards the end of Deuteronomy in the 29th chapter Moses recapping on the way those commands were fulfilled he tells the Israelites that the sandals on their feet did not wear out during the length of that journey that's Deuteronomy 29 5 but let's go to Philippians now and chapter 6 let's read together i'm sorry did i say Philippians Ephesians in chapter 6 let's read together from the 14th verse right through to the 18th inclusive Ephesians 6 verse 14 right through to 18 inclusive join me if you've got the niv stand firm then with a belt of truth buckled around your waist with a breastplate of righteousness in place and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace in addition to all this take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests with this in mind be alert and always keep on praying for all the things well i want to bring you back to the subject matter that i referred to last week with regard to putting on footwear that's appropriate to the christian warrior verse 15 with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace you say well why are you returning to this didn't you say all that you had to say last sunday and the answer is no i didn't say all that i wanted to say and what i did have to say didn't please me because i wasn't too sure just how clear what i had to say came across so i want to bring your attention back to this matter again and i do so for a second reason because you see it is so vitally important that as christians we understand what our foundation is now let me say this because i know we've got friends who are coming here on holiday during these months and they're not perhaps used to or aware of expository ministry verse by verse and some people libel me as saying comma by comma but but we we are dealing with the the christian armor we conceive in in philip in ephesians we can't do anything else but this of the christian in terms of the warrior i don't find a christian life an easy life i find it a delightful life i would be nothing else but a christian i wouldn't want to live if i wasn't a christian but i would be less than honest if i said that i found it easy and that we would be doing violence to the teaching of the lord jesus if we suggested that he taught that the christian faith is an easy one there's great joy in serving the lord jesus joy unspeakable and full of glory that's one aspect particularly when we come together in worship and praise but out there in the secular world it's tough because well the devil is there the whole world says john lies in the hands of the evil one his presence is felt and so the christian as he moves out he into a secular society he goes out realizing that he's he's attempting to penetrate the world for jesus christ this is why the savior came isn't it to to retake ground that had been occupied by the devil one day the boot will be given to satan completely because the earth is the lord and the fullness thereof but until that time those of us millions who have lived since the day of the lord jesus right to the 1980s those of us who name his name engage in the same battle in which he found himself involved that's why ephesians tells us to put on the full armor of god and tells us twice to put on the full armor of god and there are other attendant verses that i could bring to bear upon this theme to show that i'm not in any way uh violating the context of scripture and it's most necessary for you and for me to realize that not only is the battle that we are fighting the battle that jesus fought but the very armor that we're wearing is the armor that jesus himself has proven to proven to be equal to the task of defending us and amongst these six pieces of armor that paul brings to our attention one of the most important is the armor described in terms of what covers the feet now now last week you will remember i spoke to you of the necessity of a foot covering and indeed i showed you that the the armies of caesar were victorious and the roman empire was strong almost in correlation almost in relation to the the quality of footwear that the roman soldiers had that's not an exaggeration you see that the romans recognized the vulnerability of the feet so you needed to cover your feet with good soles and have the the the sole strapped around the feet and strapped around the leg so that when you marched over rough terrain the soldiers could continue without getting any poison in their feet without getting blisters and so forth an army can only march on its feet it can't march on its stomach can it be a funny army if it did dad's army might but not the roman army the feet are so important they're foundational you can't stand unless you stand on your feet and stand stand stand is the injunction of paul as he's writing to the ephesian christian several times he tells us to do this and if you have good souls on your feet then it means that you can stand you're stable it means you can move you're mobile and this says the apostle paul is not only the characteristic that arrests his attention as he looks at his god who's looking after him in his roman dungeon but it's also a characteristic that ought to represent the christian you see the necessity of having your feet your foundation well shot of being able to stand of being stable of being mobile able to to move well then i bring you back to this subject of the uh the gospel shoes actually the word shoes isn't referred to is it it's only there by implication let me give you one or two translations of verse 15 here's the authorized version your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace the rsv your feet shod with the equipment of the gospel and without being biased on this occasion on other occasions i've qualified it i think the niv gets the best rendering your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel the readiness that comes from the gospel well then why i put it to you again is this subject matter about the covering of our feet don't take that literally of course we're getting spiritual principles from this aren't we why is the covering of our feet so important well let me suggest one or two further reasons as we approach this subject now from a different point of view from the way that i dealt with it last week what sends you reeling as a christian what knocks you off your balance now you'll be a very unique person and i'm not sure that i would believe you even if you put your hand over your heart if you told me that you've been a christian for several years or several months and you've never reeled you've never had a blow that's knocked your spiritual balance and to the extent that you were tottering almost like a drunken man now that shouldn't be your situation but it is because there was only one true soldier of god who never trembled in the face of a battle and that was our lord jesus so i ask you why is it or how does it come about that time after time though shod with the gospel shoes sometimes you reel up you're knocked off balance psalm 142 and verse 3 says in the path where i walk men have hidden the snare for me and that's true isn't it that very often if we make our progress as christians down this world we find that there are many snares and sometimes the shoe leather isn't thick enough to prevent the snares that pointed nasty element on the road from getting through and affecting our mobility and our stability well i want to try to show you not in any exhaustive fashion what are the ingredients that cause people to rear up to be off balance as christians do you remember in the bible story of mephibosheth never dared to preach on mephibosheth because i'm sure but that by the end of the address i would get all the myths and the shifts and what have you but but he was a son of Saul and he was lame he couldn't walk properly you can't blame the fellow he was he was lame almost from birth his nurse dropped him actually and damaged his feet and it seems to me that there are a lot of christians who go through life like a sort of evangelical mephibosheth that's the last time i try his name that they sort of limp around somewhat off balance oh there's another man i've been studying feet in the old testament fascinating subject by the name of arser a king one chronicle 1612 he had diseased feet that means to say that he couldn't walk very well now spiritually these are literal examples spiritually what causes reeling up and an inability to move forward what about compromise compromise look at this man samson for example now when you come across the story of samson in judges you find a man who is not only physically well endowed but spiritually and indeed the two are linked he's physically so powerful because he knows something of the of the mighty holy spirit resting upon him but there was an occasion sad though it be in in samson's life when he compromised he went into the philistine camp he couldn't keep away from the women this is one of his big problems and alas it's not just retained to those who lived in the book of judges one of the great difficulties one of the great traps to knock men off balance is women and vice versa the relationships taken outside of a biblical context you understand what i'm saying and here is this woman delilah to to whom samson engages in an illicit relationship and ere long his strength goes and you discover in the old testament one of the most tragic verses describing a man that's ever written in description of any one-time leader of the children of god samson didn't realize that the lord had gone from him he compromised the woman she knocked him off balance and as a result far from wearing shoes he was on slippers and what the slippers do but enable you to slip he could have done with some gospel hobnailed boots confidence a self-confidence here's peter now now jesus we're in the new testament of course the lord is addressing the disciples he's predicting what's going to happen in a few hours time and peter said oh lord you've got it wrong amazing cheek of peter isn't it you know a little while ago he said lord you are the christ the son of the living god all omnipotence is yours all omniscience that means all knowledge belongs to you and yet here's peter correcting him have you ever corrected the lord come on you know you have and so so the lord says to to peter peter you're going to deny me and peter still can't believe it but it happens that the cock crows and peter with oaths and curses has denied that he ever knew the man you remember how that nasty expression the man comes out of his lips as he's referring to none other than the blessed lord jesus christ you see he's no longer got his boots on he's on his slippers and there's a girl again who's making him slip not on the sexual area but simply because peter is so overconfident let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall that applies to me one great man of god who committed suicide a little while ago tragic tragic case brought hundreds to the lord compromised himself in his old age couldn't live with the consequences killed himself as a result i bring that out not to shock you but simply to tell my fellow brother elders and deacons and pastoral leaders and everyone in the church not just the young people that we all are vulnerable and this is why we need the gospel shoes you see don't be so self-confident he that thinks he stands let him take heed that includes you and me conceit here's this man diatrophies uh third john and uh verse nine he's he's a ruler in the church you know spurgeon you may have heard of him uh he from time to time makes this this uh warning give this warning to his students in the college that he founded he said look the pulpit is a great place for the soil of pride you can see diatrophies he's got it all worked out you see and ere long he's his feet are so swollen that he can't get the gospel boots on which isn't an original thought he was preached by a man called william gunnell a puritan preacher some years ago the gospel shoe will not cover the feet so long as that foot is swollen with any type of tumor well what can stop us from reeling from being knocked off balance psalm 116 and verse 18 says thou can keep my feet from falling only by keeping a close contact with the living god so then these these uh teachings that the apostle puts to us in terms of the gospel shoes and the rest of the armor are so very vital to us we reel up when we compromise we reel up when we're overconfident we reel up when we get conceited about our spiritual well-being or the position that we have in a church but it's not just reeling up that i want to examine there's something else as well i was set a puzzle the other day in a book that i was reading it said this why is christianity like a ride on a bicycle why is christianity like a ride on a bicycle and the answer is that to keep your balance you've got to go forward it's true isn't it you can't ride a bicycle in reverse you've got to move forward and that's the same with a christian soldier you see he's got these gospel shoes and the idea is at least to move forward or to hold on but not to regress not to be in reverse not to drag along in a very cumbersome fashion so what causes people who are christians i'm dealing completely with christians this morning what causes people to drag their shoes well the size i mean it's it's a lovely picture isn't it a little girl who raids mum's wardrobe and she comes down decked in mother's dress and she's got size let's go careful here size five on on on her feet and so very very timidly she tiptoes across the the carpet on the lounge much to dad's delight she can't move very quickly why not well her feet are so small and mum's are relatively so large now the gospel shoe basically it's the same and yet the reference is to fitting isn't it in verse 15 those of you with the niv with the readiness that the first part and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace as though there's a special shoe to to fit your foot that may not fit mine you see you can drag your feet as a christian if you're in the wrong particular ministry most church treasurers will not feel terribly at home in a pulpit some would but the majority wouldn't they probably feel that they would empty the church of the congregation most preachers would not be at home doing the treasurer's job they'd probably bankrupt the congregation give it uh any length of time there's a specific ministry you see i can never get my bank balance to agree to what i think it should be every month let alone handle the tens of thousands of pounds that come through the the tabernacle exchequer and if i was to be a church treasurer i would be a i'd be a drag on the church you see the shoes that the treasurer wear and the shoes that i wear and the shoes that the elders wear in one sense they're all the same and yet they're tailor-made to the particular ability of the one who is who is wearing them so don't get dragged back by assuming a ministry to which you're not particularly qualified i could give you of course many examples you can work this out for yourself can you not but it's not just a question of size it's also a question of shoe weight weight you see these shoes that we're referring to as i've indicated they're not your fanciful uh modern shoe that lasts perhaps about six months depending where you've bought them and you have to sling them out because they're worn through these these are good old-fashioned boots and on the underneath there are there are studs and and the studs are necessary as i'll be showing you in a moment or two and recapping on on last week to to keep your balance so that you can you can dig in but but you know you can overdo it with the studs see this is a problem with christianity isn't it i mean it's either a question of hobnail boots with too many studs or flimsy pseudo-evangelical slippers that won't hold anything in terms of your stability and yet yet there's a balance there are some people who delight to put studs in the boot that are not terribly important and as a result that the studs that they weigh down the shoe and as a result the foot can't move as as it ought to move and there's the sluggishness and heaviness i met christian people god bless them like that they've never known what dml lloyd johns refers to as the abandonment of the holy spirit in terms of really enjoying being a christian they've got the idea and incidentally historically it's so inaccurate it's a libel that the puritans were doer somber men you know and to be a christian you've got to be terribly miserable and to laugh in the presence of god is something that is really utterly unacceptable you know putting putting studs in your shoes that are are not really necessary but you feel that somehow or other you've got to put a further load upon your feet let me give you an example of what i mean i take it from the experience of cpo if they don't mind me quoting this they had a track which was passed on to me by them thank them very much the other day denouncing the niv version of the bible tool of the devil and really the reasoning behind it was was so absurd it brought theological tears to my eyes the person who had written it obviously had got no idea whatsoever about the subject of textual criticism the historic history of the manuscripts and so on and so forth now you see this is putting a stud in terms of a preference for a version over against another version which really is is utterly unallowable historically it's an absurd argument not that the niv is the best version of the bible or the rsv or the american standard version or the authorized version any version has within it its own error its own error it's bound to because language translation is not an exact science you can't take the hebrew literally into the english it's utterly impossible you can't do it with a greek there's bound to be an area of maneuver that doesn't mean to say therefore that the bible is is is incomplete or inaccurate but you can never never have a perfect rendering but what you do have is absolutely sufficient for the basic task of proclaiming the word of god proclaiming the gospel that is written on the pages of scripture oh i tell you my friends don't belong to the dishonorable society of religious foot draggers you know the people you got them in the old testament poor old joshua and caleb they had a basinful from these people i mean they'd gone into the promised land and brought back a super report it's all marvelous there let's go and get it for god after all he promised it to abram centuries ago so we're not exactly being speedy in taking up the the option but the members of the dishonorable society of foot draggers they came along and said ah but look there are giants there and it's such a difficult land for us to take and ere long god was so so displeased with the foot draggers union that for 30 odd years and more the children of israel just went round and round sinai on a journey which was really an insult to them but a reflection upon their poor spirituality now the dragging feet union guild is there in the new testament here is let's say what example did i give you in my notes let's take the example of of peter in the 11th chapter of the acts of the apostles no need to turn to it just a moment you can check it later on and and he's got problems why well you see he's been he's been to cornelius's household and cornelius's can you believe it the roman and if jews have no dealings with samaritans what they thought of the romans isn't really printable and here is peter the sort of star preacher from the day of pentecost in the house of cornelius and would you believe it not only in his house but the holy spirit falls upon this company of people and peter does nothing about it at all and back in jerusalem they're really astonished and so peter is called to give an account as to why he was there what he was saying and what really happened and peter has to tell those fellows in jerusalem it's all right the lord is in this here is the fulfillment in effect of the prediction of jesus the gospel in jerusalem judea samaria and throughout the whole of the uttermost parts of the earth but the bastion of conservatism was the church in jerusalem and very often my friend it's the church the conservative church that stops the advance of the spirit of god and his penetration of societies and his his attempt to to to restore the the the spirituality of a bygone era oh i i speak with a a strain of humor but within the humor well it's a clip by the seriousness when i refer to the dishonorable society of foot draggers and i ask you turn in your card if you're a member of that guild let's move on what causes you to reel up what causes you to drag back when should you dig in you see professor mool a brilliant commentator on scripture indicates in this 15th verse that the thought is not running errands for the master and wearing the gospel shoes but holding the fort for him holding the fort for him hold the fort for i am coming you know that hymn it's a lovely hymn i don't think it made him to faith maybe because he'd had a chorus i think um hold the fort for i am coming jesus signals still wave the answer how does it go back to heaven by thy grace we will how do you hold the fort well it's it's a sort of have a tug-of-war illustration did you ever have a tug-of-war when you were at school go and admit it you did all right it was 40 50 years ago but nonetheless you know what it was and you maybe it was a slippy day and because there'd been some rain and you're on the on the in the yard or in the in the field of your of your school and and you got the masters and the mistresses at one end and you got the boys and the girls at the other end and you're pulling away now what really was the crux of the issue not so much weight and bulk or else the staff would generally take it any time but but the amount of grip on on your feet and ability to to dig into the soil to get a hold so that you could take the tension and eventually win the particular competition now that's the idea here holding standing fast the tug-of-war principle they they give us an illustration in daniel of of men who will stand there's a principle at stake you see there are certain things that are not worth fighting over certain peripheries certain prejudices and opinions that maybe we have and it's right to have a prejudice and an opinion but it's not worth fighting for it's not worth dying for but but here the issue at stake is fidelity to the god of of judaism and shadrach meshach and abednego they will not sell the lord god short and so when the music starts up you remember and everyone touches the the ground and gives obeisance to the to the image of the king these three jews stand tall and erect they hold they dig in and there are times in the new testament when you find exactly the same principle here is peter and john they're before the sanhedrin and the sanhedrin tell them no longer to preach in the name of jesus and they say well what should we do obey you or obey god there's no issue there's no dispute of course we obey god you see here is a principle that is so vital you're bound to dig in you've got exactly the same with paul he's preaching in front of a very august company of people man by the name of agrippa and festus are listening to him you read the story in acts 26 and verse 24 and uh on one occasion paul speaks about the resurrection and the roman just leans over and he says paul you're out of your mind you've flipped it you've spent too long in the dungeon you're a little deranged resurrection resurrections don't happen there are some no such things as comebacks at that level but paul will not give ground he digs in it's vital you see the person of christ his death his his atoning work on the cross his his mighty resurrection they're basic to the gospel you can't compromise on these things you couldn't then and you can't now so paul holds you see now now this is the the case throughout the whole of church history there are times when certain issues come up and and you've got to hold your ground you just can't yet if if i was to be anyone else if i had the option who lived in church history after biblical times you know who i'd want to be i've got a few minutes so just hold on i'd like to be a man by the name of athanasius athanasius was one of the great men of god smaller stature bushy eyed uh bushy uh eyebrows wide-eyed and uh the issue at involving the church at this point was whether jesus was really the son of god it was the jehovah's witness teaching coming centuries ago they said jesus is a great man the greatest man but he's not god and it looks as though the whole of the church was going to take what was known as an arian position a jehovah's witness position on the person of christ and they said to athanasius unless you side with us then you'll find everyone is against you the whole world and so he drew himself up to his statue and with his blazing eyes he said well then it's athanasius contra mundum athanasius against the world this issue is so frightful let the years go by the centuries fall over and come through to the 15th 16th century here you've got martin luther and the whole of the gospel message has been buried and exchanged for the superstition of a catholicism which then was very severe and today perhaps in some areas is not as bad as it used to be justification by faith it has gone and here is martin luther on his own against the whole of the clergy the whole of europe seems to side with the pope and luther is just an individual small seemingly insignificant man and yet when he is asked to give ground he says here i stand i can do no other you see there are times my friend when you must begin there are times when you must ensure that you're not dragging your feet there are times when you have to examine why occasionally you've been rearing up you say well can i really last as a christian with all these problems with all these pressures well you can that's my final word this morning here in romans 14 and chapter 4 the apostle paul has to say about the lord god that he's able to give us equilibrium who are you to judge someone else's servant to his own master he stands the and he will stand for the lord is able to make him stand that applies to you and to me the lord's able to make us stand to stand firm for him to shoe us with the gospel covering that's appropriate for our feet you know all the old-fashioned blacksmith you brought your horse into the blacksmith's yard and what did the horse do well if it was a tame horse and it had got confidence in the blacksmith he would allow the blacksmith to lift the hoof and then he'd get a shoe that was fitting for that horse and he'd puncture the hoof with three or four nails and he'd do it for each of the hoofs of the horse and then the horse would go out shod prepared for the ground that he had to cover for the months and maybe even for a couple of years to come now that's the same will you accept that as an illustration the divine blacksmith you're going in and saying lord here are my feet chew me enable me to have the foundations that i need to be able to stand for you i don't want to rear up i don't want to be knocked off balance i don't want to drag my feet but when i need to dig in may i have the grip on you and your gospel and be ready to do what you will want me to do for jesus sake amen well let's sing a hymn that binds together some of the things that i've been teaching you 425 thou whose name is called jesus risen lord of life and power oh it is so sweet to trust thee every day and every hour we'll sing the second verse then go to the fourth and fifth verses three then all together verses two four and five of number four two five just follow the the numbers and you're of the hymn and you'll get verses although they're in a slightly different order two four and five the father we would ask of you that we might be fleet-footed where the situation arises that we might go to that very area where you want us to continue the fight and the struggle for you we pray that we may not be knocked off balance this coming week but that we may live for the honor and the glory of our lord jesus at times when we need to dig in lord show us on what issues to be unmovable and on other issues help us to be loving and malleable and feeling full towards those who differ from us